Although the sheet is inscribed "Flor. 1857" in the artist’s own hand, the date is incorrect. Degas visited Florence for the first time in 1858 and must have written the inscription many years later. The fragmented, disassociated imagery makes the drawing a beguiling document of artistic process and the young artist’s engagement with the art of the past. The refined female head drawn in graphite was copied from a drawing then attributed to Leonardo da Vinci in the Uffizi Gallery. Other sketches show Degas’s responses to Florentine sculpture. The small study in the upper right was likely made from life, perhaps an impromptu portrait of his cousin Giulia Bellelli.