This picture is one of a set of four. In subject matter, style, and dimensions, these pictures are more nearly alike than those in any other set of paintings by Gwen John. The version now at Cleveland was dispatched by Gwen John to John Quinn on 12 February 1916, though from their correspondence it seems possible that it was already finished in July of the previous year. "I have several things ready to send," she wrote, "but I was advised a few weeks ago by the packer to wait a little till the danger at sea is over" (26 July 1915). These pictures may have been painted at 6 rue de l'Ouest, which had a very similar fireplace and mantelpiece (though the wallpaper seems different from other rue de l'Ouest pictures).

On 29 September 1914, Gwen John, discussing the rumoured wartime evacuation of Meudon, where she was living, told Quinn: "I should have come to stay in my room at Paris which I keep on. I come in nearly every day to work as I have begun things there."

Except for the picture sent to John Quinn (Interior), none of the paintings from this set was sold in Gwen John's lifetime. One of them was exhibited in her London exhibition in 1926.

Provenance: