This is one of the artist’s earliest lithographs, where he drew the outlines of an animated figure with a heavy crayon. The lithograph, on a yellowish Japanese paper, translates the fluidity and texture of Matisse’s original drawing. Matisse enjoyed the immediacy and simplicity of the lithographic transfer process. He could quickly draw an image on a sheet of transfer paper and send it off to the printer for them to then transfer his drawing to a stone for printing.