The subject of working on a lathe was of particular interest to C.A. Ionides, who bequeathed the drawing to the V&A, because he himself practiced wood-turning as a hobby. In the 1880s the French artist Léon Auguste Lhermitte made an extensive series of studies of rural craftsmen. He was influenced by Alphonse Legros, who almost certainly introduced the artist's work to Ionides. It was unusual at the time for charcoal to be used for independent works of art, and Lhermitte was one of the first artists regularly to exhibit works in this medium.