The male figure seated at a table is a recurring theme in the great sequence of La Fresnaye's cubist paintings, La partie de cartes (1912), La vie conjugale (1912-1913), La conquête de l'air (1913) and L'homme assis (1913-1914). This study is derived from L'homme assis and is directly related to the two versions of Le Quatorze Juillet which de la Fresnaye painted in 1914. The first of these is smaller and relatively finished. The second larger version was not completed and was possibly the next step towards a monumental composition, a project which was disrupted by the outbreak of the First World War in August, 1914 and La Fresnaye's enlistment in the infantry the following month. Germain Seligman owned the second version and donated it to the Musée Nationale d'Art Moderne, Paris.