Lavery had a deep attachment to Tangier arising from his first trip to Morocco in 1890. In 1903 he purchased a small property on a hill on the outside of the city and he wintered there with his wife, Hazel and younger daughter, Alice until 1920. Walter Sparrow Shaw writes of the influence of Morocco on the artist's work: 'Lavery's colour as a painter underwent a gradual change after his first visit to Africa. It was seldom a change of key; perhaps I may call it a fattening of tone and a greater breadth of resilience in the effective harmony of his paint. This development not only continued for a considerable time, gathering help from several quaters, the earliest being Hals and Velasquez; it continues now, for this year's (1911) production at Tangier, both landscapes and figures, have virile freshness, despite some faults, as critis have noticed at the Academy'
(W. Sparrow Shaw, John Lavery and His Work, London, 1911, pp.86-87)