This charming work depicts Anil Kumar Chanda (1906-1976), Rabindranath Tagore’s chief secretary in Shantiniketan. He and his wife Rani Chanda (1912-1997) were close friends with Tagore towards the end of his life. According to the inscription, the work was gifted to Chanda by Tagore on 21 August 1936.

At some point it passed into the ownership of Krishna Riboud (1926-2000), an art historian and collector whose mother was the grandniece of Rabindranath Tagore. In 1949 she married Jean Riboud, a French socialist and chairman of Schlumberger, whom she met at a party thrown by Henri Cartier-Bresson. She and her husband were more than collectors rather art patrons and supported and befriended artists, especially those living in Paris. It was purchased from Riboud in the 1990s by a British collector and has remained in private hands ever since.