Bastien-Lepage painted it in his native village of Damvillers, whose name is written in the work's lower-left corner just above the artist's signature.

[2][3]Vincent van Gogh was another admirer of the work, considering it a faithful depiction of French peasantry.

[4] In 1885 (the year after the painter's death) it was acquired by his brother Émile Bastien-Lepage.

Next it was acquired in 1897 by the Australian entrepreneur George McCulloch, who had moved to London in the early 1890s and started collecting paintings.

After McCulloch's death in 1907, the painting passed to his widow Mary Coutts Michie.