Frances Macdonald MacNair was a key figure in the Glasgow Style movement of around 1890-1910, alongside Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Margaret Macdonald (Charles’ wife and Frances Macdonald’s sister) and James Herbert MacNair (Frances’ husband). The date and original title for this work are unknown. It is one of no more than a dozen independent watercolours which survive from the artist’s oeuvre and is one of the most outstanding examples of her work. It is a haunting, enigmatic picture which demonstrates how Scottish artists, such as MacNair, were at the forefront of European symbolist art.