The sketch can be dated to c.1900 on grounds of style, so it must have been given to the painter G.D. Leslie about the time it was painted. Leslie is best known for his genre scenes in the 'aesthetic' style, but as Professor Vern Swanson observes (loc. cit.,), he 'occasionally ventured into Greco-Roman subjects and an exchange of classical ideas and information probably initiated this gift by Alma-Tadema.' The sketch is the only known example of a pure landscape by Tadema since about 1880, and is larger that the format he usually adopted (8 x 13 in.) for studies of this type.