Grace Crowley was one of the first Australian artists to respond to Cubism. In Paris in the late 1920s she studied under Cubist artists André Lhote and, later, 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 on the proportions of the golden mean and shows the geometric simplification of form taught by Lhote. Crowley returned to Australia in 1930 and became a leader of the modern movement in Sydney.