My studio in the old Kimball Building on Wabash and Jefferson Street in downtown Chicago was adjacent to another studio, where two young lady painters practiced their profession. One of them, Miss Bosworth, a most feminine, charming girl, greatly interested me and after a few meetings I was invited to her home to meet her family in Elgin, Illinois. Her father was a handsome pattiarchal American with a beard. Eventually, he visited me in my studio where this portrait was done in just one sitting. As usual, after talking with him for about an hour and a half, I finished the work from memory, exaggerating his individual traits of physiognomy.

The bust is much over life-size.