Constant (or Charles) de l'Aubiniere (1842-1910) and his British artist wife, Georgina Martha (see RCIN 450633), were commissioned to execute fourteen oil paintings for Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee in 1887. They travelled through Canada, living in Montreal in 1888 and 1889, before settling in England.

The ramshackled houses to the left, with exterior staircases connecting four storeys, resembles the eighteenth century Casa Morandi, in Baveno, near Lake Maggiore, Italy. It sits in a narrow lane opposite a house with an arched doorway and balcony above it. In the street a woman converses with two children, and in the foreground hens forage for food.