Rather unusually, Chagall has inscribed the present work with the initials NJ denoting that it was executed in New Jersey. Chagall spent an extended period in America between 1941 and 1948 during which time this work seems likely to have been executed.

Chagall enjoyed enormous success in the States and staged a large one-man show in the Museum of Modern Art in New York from April-June 1946, his first important exhibition in a museum since his one-man show held at the Kunsthalle in Basle in 1933.

Sold with a photo-certificate from Jean Louis Prat of Le Comité Marc Chagall dated Saint-Paul le 24 mars 1990. This work is recorded in the Comité Marc Chagall archive under no. 900068