The models for The Browning readers were the artist’s wife, Alice, and her sister, Grace, wife of the artist William Orpen. Rothenstein depicted the readers in a quietly lit domestic parlour, decorated in an artistic ‘oriental’ style. This work was influential on contemporary interior decoration. The simplicity of the decoration shown in this painting — the brass plate and the blue and white china and the glass vase with a branch of spring blossom — started a fashion for uncluttered interiors.