Drawing after the art of the past has always been central to Kossoff's practice as an artist. Ever since he was a young boy, he has visited the National Gallery to draw and he has also drawn regularly from exhibitions in London. The present work is a study from one of Cezanne's most celebrated early portraits, Portrait of Achille Emperaire,1867-8, which was included in the Royal Academy exhibition Cezanne: The Early Years 1859-1872, London 1988. Kossoff visited the exhibition on numerous occasions to draw many of the works on view. Appropriately, he gave this work to the eminent artist and art historian Sir Lawrence Gowing, who was the curator of the Royal Academy's exhibition.