The illustration shows the third Manager, a dummy in blackface and evening dress which would then have been described as ‘a negro’, mounted on horseback for the ballet created by Pablo Picasso for Parade in 1917. The horse is ‘pantomime –style’, or a 'cheval dressé', that is with two men within a costume. During the rehearsals, before the first performance in Paris, the dummy fell off the horse and it is generally claimed that Picasso bowed to popular concensus and decided to keep the horse unmounted. However the dummy was remade before Parade was presented in London and there is evidence, including White's illustrations, that it was used for performances there. The horse may well reference the music hall act by Footit and Chocolat. The horse’s head is in the style of an African mask. Goli and Baule helmet masks and Fang masks of the Cameroon have been suggested as influences as well as ape masks of the Senufo tribe of Sudan. The background evokes the setting of the ballet.

Parade was created by Jean Cocteau (who had the idea and wrote the libretto), Pablo Picasso (designing his first ballet) and Erik Satie (composer), with choreography by Léonide Massine. It received its premiere at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, on 18 May 1917. This drawing was probably made by White when the ballet was first performed in London in 1919.

The drawings by Ethelbert White were commissioned by the bookseller and publisher Cyril Beaumont and appear to have be intended as possible illustrations for a small book in the Impressions of the Russian Ballet series. Beaumont published twelve volumes documenting eleven ballets between 1918 and 1922.

The Theatre & Performance collection of the V&A holds eight glass plates by Lachmann showing the horse without the dummy on its back at the time of the premiere in Paris.