Armand Guillaumin and his wife Marie-Joséphine (née Gareton) gave birth to their first child, a daughter Madeleine-Julie, on 14 October 1888. Although Guillaumin had favored landscape subjects up until this point, the focus of his work shifted to intimate views of his family life immediately following Madeleine's birth. The present drawing may have been executed during the family's visit to Pontgibaud, the ancestral home of Guillaumin's mother. It displays developments in the artist's oeuvre during the late 1880s, characterized by a tightening of draftsmanship and firmer handling of the pastel medium.