Born to a prosperous Philadelphia family, Cecilia Beaux was one of the most successful female artists of her generation. Trained at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the Académie Julian in Paris, she enjoyed considerable prestige as a portraitist. At its best, her work rivaled John Singer Sargent's in its deft brushwork and skillful rendering of rich fabrics. In 1902 she became the third woman to win admission to the National Academy of Design. One of her most memorable distinctions came in 1896, when the Paris Salon accepted six of her works for its annual exhibition and then heightened their impact on visitors by hanging them together-a courtesy rarely extended to Salon exhibitors.

Beaux's self-portrait exhibits the loose brushwork that came to characterize her work. In its upward-looking perspective, the picture also testifies to her interest in injecting her works with compositional twists that often set them apart from portraits by other artists.