This sentimental painting was acquired from the Melbourne International Exhibition of 1880. Described at the time as ‘full of pathos and poetry’, the painting found less favour with the NGV’s director Bernard Hall a generation later. In 1900, in his report to the Trustees on the gallery’s purchasing policy, Hall complained that: ‘It is catering for popularity and making a kind of scrapbook of the Gallery that pictures such as “La Drenière Étape de Coco” came to be bought’.
Exhibited Salon, Paris, 1878, no 220; Sydney International Exhibition, Sydney, 1879; French Court, Melbourne International Exhibition, Melbourne 1880–81.