Gauguin's album of prints featured diverse subjects drawn from his work in Brittany, Martinique, and the two months he had just spent with Van Gogh in Arles.

The woman wearing a coiffe and the Breton-style gate in the background link this scene to Brittany. As Gauguin remarked: It is an impression of the vineyards that I saw in Arles. I put in some Bretons - so much for exactitude.

This image addresses a universal theme of the human condition. The pensive girl, head in hands, also appears in Gauguin's work from Arles and the South Seas.

Paul Sérusier [1863-1927], Paris and Châteauneuf du Faou; by inheritance to his widow, Marguerite Sérusier [1879-1950]; to her friend Paule Henriette Boutaric, Paris;{1} posthumous sale of Boutaric collection at (Ader Picard Tajan, Paris) in 1984;{2} Sam Josefowitz, Lausanne; given to Indianapolis Museum of Art in 1998.

{1}Paule Henriette Boutaric collaborated on the publication by Marcel Guicheteau, Paul Sérusier, Paris, 1976. "Collections H. Boutaric" appears in pencil on the verso.
{2}Ader Picard Tajan, Paris, "Tableaux Modernes, Dessins, Aquarelles, Sculptures, Estampes provenant de la succession P. Sérusier et de la succession de Mademoiselle Boutaric, 19-20 June 1984, lot. no. 477. A stamp from this sale appears on the verso.