The setting is the Rotonde de Mars, so called because the Borghese Mars was its principal piece, in the Salle des Antiques. The windows offer a view looking northeast of the Pavillon Sully or Cour de l'Horloge. There appear to be some discrepancies in Tissot's biography which make it difficult to place the picture exactly, but the gilr's costume suggests a date as late as 1888 or 1889. A sketch for the picture, without the figures, is in the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence.