Eugène Cuvelier was arguably the most sophisticated of the early photographers working within the forest of Fontainebleau, the famed outdoor studio for painters of the Barbizon School, many of whom were his friends. Camille Corot and Théodore Rousseau served as official witnesses at his wedding, and Jean-François Millet praised his 'very fine photographs' in a letter to Rousseau. Cuvelier’s work is typified by a combination of sensitivity and objectivity that makes him a forerunner of Harry Callahan, Robert Adams, and Lewis Baltz, among other 20th century photographers.

Ulrike Gauss, compiler of the catalogue raisonné on Cuvelier’s work, locates only one other print of this image.