He has just asked her to marry him; she contemplates her answer, gazing shyly at the bouquet of roses. Alma-Tadema took the title (‘I love you, love me too’) from a novel by his friend Carel Vosmaer. In this sweet story this text is engraved in a Roman ring. Alma-Tadema made the painting especially for the home of Henry Marquand, a wealthy banker and art collector from New York.