Lear had met Alfred Seymour at Sass's School of Art in 1849 and they remained friends (see V. Noakes, ed., Edward Lear: Selected Letters, 1988, p. 252 and note).

Lear visited India and Ceylon at Lord Northbrook's expense, arriving at Bombay on 22 November 1873 and leaving over a year later on 12 January 1875. He could have done this watercolour while still there but the form of the signature and the back of inscriptions giving detailed notes on the date and colours suggests that it was done as a finished work after he returned