Grace Crowley was one of the first Australian artists to respond to cubism. In Paris in the late 1920s, she studied under cubist artists Andre Lhote and then Albert Gleizes. In the summer of 1928, Crowley took part in Lhote’s painting school at Mirmande in the south of France. The composition of Girl with goats is based upon the proportions of the golden mean and shows the geometric simplification of form that was taught by Lhote. Crowley returned to Australia in 1930 and became a leader of the modern movement in Sydney.