Peggy Guggenheim purchased this drawing on the occasion of the exhibition Contemporary Paintings and Sculpture presented at her London gallery, Guggenheim Jeune, in the summer of 1938. It was the first of six works by Henry Moore to enter her collection. Although Moore himself defined this and other drawings from this period “ideas for sculpture,” no finished sculpture was ever based directly on them, as they were only intended only as starting points: generic inspiration and ideal guide for sculptures but no actual sketches or notes for definitive sculpture models.