Max Beckmann and his wife Quappi hoped to emigrate to the United States after the outbreak of World War II in September, 1939. They were staying in Amsterdam awaiting a visa when the Germans invaded neutral Holland in May, 1940. They remained in Amsterdam for eight years, half-tolerated by the Nazi government, but always living in fear of persecution. After the war their freedom was restricted because Beckmann still carried a German passport. Finally, in March, 1947, Beckmann and Quappi were free to leave, and they visited France, staying in Paris, Monte Carlo, Cap Martin and Nice, where the present drawing was done. This subject, seen from a different viewpoint, was used in the painting Bakkaret, painted in Amsterdam in May-July, 1947. (E. and B. Göpel, Max Beckmann, Katalog der Gemälde, Bern, 1976, no. 745; coll. William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City, Missouri). The Beckmanns finally departed for America in August, 1947.