Marabout derives from a sketch made by the artist on her stay in Tunis with Kandinsky from December 1904 to March 1905. During the artists' period in Paris in 1907, following their extensive travels, Münter produced a full preparatory drawing in ink, watercolour and gouache (Gabriele Münter und Johannes Eichner Stiftung, Munich) before embarking on the final form of the subject in the medium of the linocut, in which can be seen the close relationship between the two artists' work.

Marabout, a 'holy man', refers to the Moslem tomb building, a pilgrimage site in Tunis. Münter exhibited an impression of the print at the Salon d'Automne in Paris as well as in her very first solo exhibitions in Cologne and Bonn in 1908