Carl Fischer-Köystrand, born in Vienna in 1861, trained first at the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts under Friedrich Sturm and Ferdinand Laufberger, and then at the Academy of Fine Arts with Christian Griepenkerl. Beginning in 1882 he worked as a draughtsman for illustrated magazines, most notably Wiener Caricaturen, and in 1886-1887 spent a brief period in Berlin drawing for Lustige Blätter. Upon his return to Vienna, he contributed regularly to Die Bombe and the Meggendorfer Blätter. In 1906 Fischer-Köystrand was elected to the Vienna Künstlerhaus. He also contributed illustrations for Die österreichisch-ungarische Monarchie in Wort und Bild.

An inscription on the verso identifies The Golden Peacock is an illustration for six songs by Ibn Saidun. It is unclear whether this refers to Abū al-Walīd Ahmad ibn Zaydūn al-Makhzūmī (1003–1071), better known as Ibn Zaydūn (ابن زيدون), an Arab Andalusian poet of Cordoba and Seville, since no cycle of six songs or a golden peacock theme are known in his work. Whatever the literary source, The Golden Peacock’s lyrical orientalism—its exotic ornament and the mystical portrayal of a woman and a peacock as lovers—is entirely characteristic of Viennese taste at the turn of the century.