In her notebook, Ruth Borchard records that she contacted John Ainley in November 1965, and paid 15 guineas for his self-portrait. Born in Sheffield in 1931, he would have been in his early thirties when it was painted. The artist's comment on being confronted with this barely remembered painting from nearly forty years ago was: 'it has a very serious expression. Clearly a studious chap!'. Balding, bespectacled, with a high illuminated forehead and neat, professional attire, the artist indeed appears thoughtful and studious. After National Service in 1949-50, Ainley studied to be a teacher, a career he enjoyed for over four decades.