The painting belonged to the collection of Walter and Louise Arensberg before being donated in 1950 to the Philadelphia Museum of Art where it is currently held.

The painting's dark palette and the muslin's fragility create a mysterious and inky atmosphere.

Ker writes that "Fish Magic is set squarely within the tradition of German Romanticism, with its blend of fantasy and natural empiricism, of poetry and pragmatics."

She points to the technique used to draw out the various fish, flora, human beings, and clock tower as "a sophisticated version of the games children play with wax crayons.

Specifically, Temkin points to the thin diagonal line extending from the middle right of the canvas to the top of the clock tower, writing that the "long painted line from the side seems ready to pull the [square of muslin] off to reveal something underneath.