Hodgkins travelled to Ibiza in October 1932, staying at the Hotel Balear with Maud Burge, and meeting up with other expatriate New Zealanders, Gwen Knight and May Smith. She stayed on the island until July 1933. In January 1933, she wrote to her friend, the painter and textile designer, Karl Hagedorn: 'in this clear ivory light every common object looks important & significant ... things appear in stark simplicity minus all detail - nothing corked up (bouchee) or hidden as in the grey, or brown light of the North'.
(see I. Buchanan, M. Dunn & E. Eastmond, Frances Hodgkins Paintings and Drawings, London, 1995, pp.59, 170).