Julia Mihes is known for her work in oil and lithography. Living in Vienna in the 1820s with her husband Alois Primisser, she probably knew and was influenced by an avant garde Viennese artistic group known as the Brotherhood of St. Luke, or the "Nazarenes." After Mihes's husband died in 1827, she entered a convent and adopted the religious name of Marie de Chantal. There the artist was encouraged to develop her talents and continued to paint even after becoming Mother Superior.

"Madonna and Child" reflects Mihes's familiarity with fifteenth and sixteenth-century paintings and prints and demonstrates her interest, like the Nazarenes, in fusing Northern and Mediterranean artistic traditions. The porcelain-like heads of the figures recall Northern painters such as Albrecht Dürer and Jan van Eyck; the landscape background with its symbolic plant life is reminiscent of Leonardo da Vinci. The pose of the Madonna and the composition are clearly influenced by the work of Raphael.