Lear was at Bethany on Palm Sunday 1858 (letter to his sister Ann, 30 March 1858; Vivien Noakes, Edward Lear, London, 1968; 1979 edition, p. 125) and described it two months later (letter to Lady Waldegrave, 27 May 1858) as 'lovely now as it ever must have been: quiet, still little nook of valley scenery'. A larger version of the drawing, without the figures, 12¾ x 20in., inscribed 'Bethany 25 of April./1858', was sold in these Rooms on 10 July 1984 (lot 280, repr.) as having been in the collection of Franklin Lushington