The original two-part bronze statue of a human figure was commissioned for the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, where it has been displayed outdoors since 1965 in a pool of water to the north of the new Metropolitan Opera House.

Some objected to the selection of a European sculptor; Newbold Morris, then Parks Commissioner of New York City, described the work as "junk", and wanted it removed.

[citation needed] Moore visited the site in 1962, exclaiming that the pool was as big as a cricket pitch, but declined to create a site-specific work.

The roughly textured surfaces and other smoothly rounded faces of the second element bear some resemblance to an eroded cliff.

Indeed, the art critic David Thompson has suggested an allusion to the arch at Étretat painted by several French Impressionists.

The completed plaster models were painted a dark colour, and placed in a pond at his home and studio at Perry Green, Hertfordshire.

This sculpture was so large that Moore needed a new temporary studio, a metal structure covered with transparent plastic sheeting, to house it while he worked on it.