Brooke first achieved notice as a painter of genre scenes of African-American life; in 1871 and 1872, a number of such pieces were reproduced in Harper's Magazine, and his first major canvas upon returning from France, A Pastoral Visit, is representative of his work in the genre. Unusually among his contemporaries, he chose to depict his black subjects in a sympathetic, rather than a caricatured, light. He explained his motives in a letter offering the painting for sale to the Corcoran Gallery of Art:
