Magritte began a version of this subject in oil, perhaps as early as summer, 1954, but later painted it over. The present work was probably done during this time. Magritte painted it in grisaille, a technique he used when he intended to reproduce the image in black-and-white. Magritte illustrated La vérité dans son bouquet de jasmins in his review La carte d'après nature (op. cit.) opposite four short texts. The first two were by Louis Scutenaire, the third by Marcel Piqueray and the fourth by Marcel Lecomte, who wrote: "the non-rational reinventory of all values is in progress and we can say that a painting which does not allow us to enlighten ourselves about fundamental relationships with the universe, cannot capture our attention."

David Sylvester lists this gouache as no. 1375 in the forthcoming fourth volume of his Magritte catalogue raisonné.