This drawing probably dates from the early to mid-1920's at a period when the search for images derived from the subconscious and his association with the circle of Surrealists, had led Cocteau to be almost totally addicated to opium. He did not manage to escape the drug until the beginning of the 1930's, yet despite the detriment it wrought on his life it was also one of the periods of greatest inspiration in his art.