The present painting which was executed in Dinard in August of 1928, is most certainly a portrait of Marie-Thérèse Walter. Picasso then 47, was married to Olga Koklova and the father of seven year old Paolo. Marie-Thérèse was an extremely attractive 18 year-old living with her mother in Paris when they had met par hasard the previous year. Shortly afterward they started a passionate relationship which would last into the late thirties and for the next seven years Marie-Thérèse would appear everywhere in Picasso's work.

In 1928, Picasso had planned to spend the summer with his family in Dinard, a seashore town in Brittany. As he did not want to be away from his new lover for so long, Picasso arranged for the young Marie-Thérèse to work at a childrens summer camp nearby. During those months she was often painted on the beach, playing with a ball, running, bathing, and next to the beach cabana where the lovers met clandestinely. Here she seems to be resting, pensively holding her head in her hand. What is she thinking about? She certainly could not suspect how her current relationship would forever change her life or imagine that her name would always be associated with one of Picasso's most important stylisic periods.