The original sketches for the church interior drawings were taken from life, and the watercolour was added later in the artist's studio. The artist would sit at the back of the church and capture the private moments of nuns, orphans and schoolchildren at prayer. In design the drawings relate closely to the French 'intimiste' tradition and late drawings such as this depend less on the model: 'An object - house, figure or flower-jug - is treated as a schematic arrangement of flat shapes and colors; its individual identity is entirely secondary'
(See C.Langdale Gwen John, Yale, 1987, pp.94,107)