Davis went to school in Worcester with the landscape painter BW Leader, but was not as ambitious as his schoolmate, who became a famous landscape painter and a distinguished Royal Academician. Davis painted humble scenes of country life, often of children, with a strong narrative element, extraordinary clarity of observation and absence of sentimentality in the characterisation of the figures. He developed a distinctive ‘rainbow’ palette and his paintings, particularly when on panel or board (as here), have an enamelled look.

Sir David Salomon, Lord Mayor of London and a tireless campaigner for Jewish rights, owned this painting. It is dated in the catalogue of his collection, which contained several paintings by various artists of school lessons, to 1856, which makes it an early work. It was not exhibited until 1858, at the RA, when William Makepeace Thackeray described it in the Art Journal: ‘No. 103 ‘Learning by Heart’, E. Davis. The student is a young rustic, who is seated on a chair, with his knees up and his head supported by both hands, and thus intently pores over his book: there is some originality and humour in the conception.’