Joy Hester holds an important place in Australian art history. Hester was a founding member of the Contemporary Art Society, which was of critical importance in Australia's modern art movement. She worked within a circle of artists, mentored by John and Sunday Reed at Heide. Hester's work has been widely exhibited and the subject of numerous publications, catalogues and is included in national, state, regional and university art collections.

Hester completed two series of works on the theme of love - the Love series (1949) and the Lovers series (1955-56). While Lovers with Rose has been dated c. 1947, Janine Burke noted that Hester rarely dated her works and dating has therefore always...