Willard Leroy Metcalf was born in Lowell, Massachusetts in 1858. His parents encouraged his artistic pursuits and sent him to study art in Boston. In the 1880s he traveled to Arizona and New Mexico, and later to Paris, Tunis, Algiers, and Morocco. Metcalf visited Florence in 1913-14.

Ponte Alla Badia, Florence, 1913 captures the clear, sunlit atmosphere characteristic of the Florentine landscape. The marvelous old arched bridge depicted is the one near the abbey of Fiesolana, an 11th century monastery on the picturesque steep old road between San Domenico and Fiesole.