This gouache is a preliminary study for the painting Les trois soeurs, 1952 (coll. Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart) one of the important compositions of Léger's final years. The artist returned to the theme of three women which he treated in previous decades, for example, in Composition aux trois femmes, 1927 (G. Bauquier, Fernand Léger, Catalogue raisonné, Paris, 1993, no. 531; coll. Musée d'Art Moderne, Saint-Etienne). The young boy playing an accordion was probably derived from an adult musician seen in studies for La Grande Parade, 1954 (coll. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York). In early studies for Les trois soeurs the artist used a red background (see sale Christie's, New York, May 11, 1994, lot 394; this work served as a maquette for a serigraph published in 1954). The background color was later changed to blue, as seen in this later study and the final version of this subject.