Catharine Janvier, born in Philadelphia, PA, moved to Macao, China with her family in 1849. During the eight years of residence there, she excelled in mathematics, literature, Oriental art, French and Latin. After the death of her father in 1858, the family moved back to the United States and settled in Baltimore, Maryland. In the 1860s she began her studies at the Maryland Institute and later enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy. In the 1870s she was a student of Thomas Eakins, a notable painter of nineteenth century Realism, and Cecelia Beaux, one of America’s most prominent women artists.

Green Almonds, 1895, is a skillfully rendered still life of green almonds wrapped in a white cloth. The texture of the natural colored wood surrounding the white cloth and green almonds provides a contrast of light and dark areas within this subdued palette of green and white.