Selima, called Minna Tersmeden, attended the Royal Academy in 1879–85. Accompanied by her fellow student Hanna Hirsch-Pauli, she travelled abroad in 1885, with the intention of spending a longer period in Paris. On this trip, the two friends painted this peasant girl in Bavarian folk costume. Tersmeden chose to end her artistic career two years later and instead worked as a crafts teacher in London.