During the 1840s Delacroix made three summer visits to Nohant in central France, where he stayed at the country home of his friend the writer Aurore Dudevant, better known by her pseudonym George Sand. This verdant view on the south side of the house, whose focal point is a simple stone table (or bench), was preceded by a pencil sketch that probably dates to 1842 or 1843 (Musee Carnavalet, Paris). One of Delacroix's rare pure landscapes, it was probably painted as a gift for Sand.