The owner's husband purchased this work in New York in 1964 when he was posted as a representative of the Indian delegation to the United Nations. At the time, he and a number of other diplomats befriended Husain during his visits to the US and supported him. The owner later served as India's Ambassador to Spain, Brazil, Switzerland and France.

There is very minor paint shrinkage in areas of black impasto inherent to the medium. This work is in good condition, as viewed.
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This charming painting is very similar to a work that Husain produced a year earlier called Green Elephants (see R. Bartholomew and S. Kapur, Husain, Abrahms, New York, 1972, no. 119). The rendering of the elephants and the lush green vegetation relates closely to Husain's Kerala series that he produced later that decade. 'With its ancient matriarchal society, staunch Dravidian faces, and simple fish folk, with its lush vegetation and sun, sand, and sea, this southwestern extremity of India beckoned to him as an idyll of contained form and emotion.' (ibid., p. 55). In the present work and in Green Elephants, Husain has used a mosaic like approach to his application of paint, using multiple patches of colour to emphasise the elephants emerging from the verdant undergrowth.

In his works from the 1950s and 60s, Husain placed an importance on nature and in particular the depiction of the rural idyll. This was driven by a post-Independence concern with finding a new national identity. The virtues and values of the rural working man were regarded as the backbone of the new independent nation. 'Most artists have been attracted at one time or other to the charm and colour of the Indian countryside and drawn inspiration from it. Few have brought to it the poetic lyricism which Husain has.' (Alkazi, M.F. Husain: The Modern Artist & Tradition, Art Heritage, New Delhi, 1978, pp.13-14).

Elephants appear in a number of Husain’s works from this period and this is in part derived from his interest in the classical arts, namely sculpture and its depiction of the elephant god, Ganesha. Elephants have had a long association with India, as symbols of strength, nobility and grace. Th💦ey symbolise an ancient rural&nbs💯p;India that has been lost to deforestation, urbanisation and globalisation.