Mary Ellen Best was born in York in England and traveled extensively through Europe. David Livingstone was the first European to see the Mosi-oa-Tunya in 1855 which he renamed to the Victoria waterfalls. The first major work with drawings and photographs on the falls was published on the falls in 1880, inspiring Best to paint the waterfalls as she herself never visited Africa. According to art historians Best stopped painting in 1852 but as the Victoria Falls was only discovered in 1855, it can be assumed that the painting was painted while Best was living in Darmstadt, Germany. She passed away in 1891