[1][2] Carrington met German Surrealist painter Max Ernst in a dinner in London, in 1937, and they soon become lovers.

She moved shortly after to Paris, to stay with Ernst, and had the chance to meet there many leading Surrealist artists.

It was there that Carrington made the current painting, probably in 1939, shortly before the beginning of World War II, when the couple split.

The influence of Ernst is noticed in the painting, with his human and animal symbiosis, like also Carrington's own personal stamp.

Ernst appears, white-haired, walking calmly, strangely dressed in a woolly feather-like covered red coat with a merman-like tail, while his only visible foot wears a striped yellow sock.