Born in Canada, Elizabeth Armstrong studied and painted in London, Munich, New York and Pont-Aven before arriving in Newlyn in 1885. Painters were drawn to the fishing village by the quality of light, the cheap cost of living and by the opportunities to paint the life of the fishing community, working en plein air in the manner advocated by Jules Bastien-Lepage. Soon after her arrival in 1885, Elizabeth met Stanhope Alexander Forbes (1857–1947), who she married in 1889 and established the Newlyn School of Painting with. The house in the background of Midday Rest is Panzer House, a boarding house at Paul known affectionately by its residents (which included the artists Laura and Harold Knight and Alfred Munnings) as 'Beer House' after the proprietor Mrs Beer.