Andre Lhote was both a talented painter and critic. He began his career in the decorative arts, studying woodcarving at an early age and later attending the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Bordeaux where he specialized in decorative arts. Lhote's first large-scale exhibition took place at the Paris Salon d'Automne in 1907. These works, like the present painting, featured bright colors and vigorous brushstrokes.

His early paintings were marked by his appreciation for Fauvism as well as his admiration of Cezanne. During this time, Lhote made acquaintances with a number of French writers and critics. It was the amateur critic Granie who secured a year's scholarship for Lhote at the Villa Medici Libre in 1909, an academic program for non-married artists. It was here that Lhote met Raoul Dufy, who was instrumental in introducing him to advanced artists and poets such as Robert Delaunay, Jean Metzinger, and Fernand Leger.

When Lhote later participated in the Salon des Independants of 1911, his work was shown next door to the infamous Salle 41, where Cubism was first exhibited. Lhote and these artists quickly became friends after learning the common extent of their interests. Their alliance became cemented in the Salon d'Automne of 1911 where paintings by Gleize, Leger, Metzinger, Villon, Duchamp, and Moreau were shown alongside Lhote's Port of Bordeaux. Thus began Lhote's formal identification with Cubism, taken further in 1919 with his inclusion in the Salon de la Section d'Or.