Depicting a girl among three young women, it was influenced by the poor surrounding Sher-Gil's home in Simla, India.

[1][2] The work accompanied Sher-Gil's painting titled Hill Men, originally called Villagers in Winter.

[4] According to Sher-Gil, generally she was not attempting to narrate any story in such paintings, but wished them to be "purely pictorial", claiming that she did not like "cheap emotional appeal".

[8] According to Sher-Gil's note to her mother, Akbar Hydari of the museum "got frightened by the prices" of her work and changed his mind about purchasing any of them.

[8] In 1937, it was number four of her paintings displayed at her One Man Show in Lahore, at a reduced price at ₹1,500, but did not sell.

[3][4] Dalmia points out that the subjects of the painting may appear poor, thin and sad, but they have "grace and dignity".

[3][10] He calls the resting hand on the shoulder a "gesture of protection", while there is a "carefully contrived play of light and dark masses".