Anna Alma-Tadema was the younger daughter of the Dutch painter Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836-1912) and his first wife, Marie-Pauline Gressin Dumoulin de Boisgirard (1837-1869). The family moved to London in 1870 and it was here that Anna received her early artistic training with her father and stepmother, Laura (1852-1909).
Anna, very much inspired by her father, focused on painting the elaborate interiors of the family home, as well as portraits and flower paintings. She made several watercolours of the interior of the first Alma-Tadema family home, Townshend House, near Regent's Park, London, including The Drawing Room, which was exhibited at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago (now at the Royal Academy, London), and The Gold Room, shown at the Royal Academy in 1885. The year that this watercolour was painted, the Alma-Tadema family had moved to 17 Grove End Road, St John's Wood, formerly the home of James Tissot (1836-1902). On moving in Alma-Tadema almost entirely remodelled the house, setting out to create a temple of aestheticism in which various rooms had different themes.
The Garden Studio was a separate building in the grounds of 17 Grove End Road which Lawrence, and clearly his daughter, used as a studio while the house was being refurbished. The woodwork includes the initials AT, and the contents of the room, such as the portrait to the upper right (also seen in Nellie Epps's 1873 portrait of Laura), and the delft plate on the picture rail, reference the family's Dutch heritage. The bust beside the door is of Lawrence Alma-Tadema himself. The space stands empty, creating a sense that this is a portrait of the Studio, capturing its details, atmosphere and personality.
This was the first picture Anna exhibited of Grove End Road, and it was described by the critic of the Magazine of Art who saw it at the Academy, as '...complicated and technically excellent; it is the best watercolour in the exhibition.’