The scene is of an Indigenous family cooking in a summer setting. Although primitive in his style, Holdstock’s value is the iconography in costume and habitat he has preserved. There is a dearth of biographical information documented about the artist. He is recorded to be from Bath, England and came to Montreal at age 30 in 1850. Prior to coming to Canada, he is said to have studied at Oxford University, although there is no indication at which college. In Montreal, Holdstock taught drawing at the Government National School, and also gave private art lessons before turning to painting full time in 1873. Holdstock painted in different media, but from our experience he excelled in the media of pastel and watercolour. Our work is characteristic of much of what we have seen by Holdstock, landscapes primarily of Canada West and Canada East, often including Indigenous peoples.

Comparable works of art by Alfred Holdstock are in Canadian museums including the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, the McCord Museum, the National Gallery of Canada, and in numerous private collections of Canadiana.