Garrett was a commercial illustrator before he took up painting in 1877. With his wife, Marietta Goldsmith, he went to Paris in 1879 to study at the Académie Julian. During their extended sojourn abroad, the couple traveled through Italy, Spain, Holland, and England. Garrett returned frequently to England, where he made charming water colors of gardens, castles, manor houses, street scenes, and quaint villages. This sheet anticipates garden watercolors from the 1890s by Childe Hassam, whom Garrett accompanied on his first trip to Europe, in summer 1883.