During the late 1920s Léger often adopted Surrealist strategies of juxtaposition, as with the grey-and-white keys and the yellow profile here, and irrational space. Yet Léger, like his friend Edward Wadsworth, was primarily concerned with the formal structure of a painting. Consequently the work's surreal elements are subordinated to his interest in combinations of shape and colour.

Wadsworth bought this picture from Léger after they met in Paris in the late 1920s.