The female figure has previously been identified as Jane Morris, but seems more likely to be modelled on Fanny Cornforth (1835-1905), of whom there is a pencil drawing ascribed to this date in which she is wearing an identical flowing dress.

The painting reflects the relaxed atmosphere at the Red House, home of the Morrises, described by Georgiana Burne-Jones as 'more a poem than a house'. This scene became the subject of 'The Backgammon Players Cabinet' executed by Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co in 1862 and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.