Giacometti met the American writer James Lord in 1952 and struck up a close friendship with him which was to last Giacometti's lifetime. He frequently made drawings of Lord from 1952 onwards, culminating in a celebrated painting of Lord which was executed in 1964. Taking eighteen days to complete, Lord recorded the progress of the portrait in diary notes and photographs which he then published as a very revealing book entitled A Giacometti Portrait in 1965.

For a work closely related to the present drawing see the illustration and note to Giacometti's Portrait de James Lord (Homme assis), Alberto Giacometti, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Nov. 1991-March 1992, no. 166.