A refugee from Poland, Josef Herman spent the decade 1944-54 in Ystradgynlais where he painted his best-known works of mining themes. This is a study for his greatest painting, the monumental Miners, executed for the Pavillion of Minerals of the Island at the 1951 Festival of Britain. The artist began with the figure with an upraised arm at the left, only subsequently making narrative sense of its pose by incorporating it with a group of singers.