This is a study for Makovsky's first large scale painting, "The Rag Market in Moscow" (1880; sale, Sotheby's, London, November 24, 2008, no. 11). Makovsky executed numerous studies in oil and watercolor, as well as notebooks of drawings, for his depiction of the flea market which took place between the former Ilyinsky Gates and Staraya ploschad'. The woman in the MMA picture appears at the far left of the final composition, as well as in another oil study, "At Noon" (1879; State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow).
