This print was the result of a commission in December 1937 from John Piper and Robert Wellington for their series ‘Contemporary Lithographs’. Its purpose was to commission well known artists to produce an original colour lithograph to be printed at the Curwen Press in large editions and for sale to educational establishments and the modest collector. The print was completed the following April, with some technical help from John Piper, who wrote to her in May that he considered it ‘the best in the series. It makes most of the others look tame and school-girlish’.