While the pristine marble evokes the unblemished purity of eternal youth, slight irregularities in the modeling suggest that June is based on an individual rather than a classical type. The young woman's lovely ringlets and expectant gaze also convey warmth and individuality. First a carpenter, cabinet maker, and cameo cutter, Palmer later distinguished himself as a sculptor who believed that “the purest and best of our nature is evinced in portraiture, not by copying the forms, but by reaching after something higher—a spiritual modification of them.”