Matisse’s nurse, Lydia Delectorskaya, noted Matisse’s description of the works to be included in the publication, Jazz. For this work she noted: 'the wolf with a blood-stained eye, his jaws ready to bite'. It is one of the more menacing images from the series. This could relate to the fact that Matisse’s daughter, who worked for a Resistance movement during the Second World War, was captured and tortured. It is believed that she discussed her experience in some detail with her father in around 1944.