This charcoal drawing belongs to a group of charcoals and lithographs executed from 1870 until the mid 1890s which Redon called Noirs. Of these drawings, the artist once said, "...(They) inspire, they do not define...They place the spectator, just as music does, in the world of the indeterminate..." (citation from A Soi-Même, Journal 1867-1915, Paris, 1961, pp. 26-27)