Hilda Rix Nicholas, like many of her affluent contemporaries, spent time studying and exhibiting overseas in the early twentieth century.

Many of her works received critical praise in France and England and the exotic pictures she painted whilst in Morocco have recently been acclaimed. Rix Nicholas returned to Australia in 1919 with the conviction, in her own words, 'to paint things typical of my country'. She turned her attention to the bush and to decidely Australian subject matter, frequently depicting women riding, mustering and playing a key role in the Australian bush life.

Painted after the birth of her only child at age forty six, The Summer house is not typical of the subject matter that Rix Nicholas was developing by the nineteen thirties. In fact, she never exhibited the painting during her lifetime.