Provenance:
- Galleria Antonio Stanese, Milan.
- Auction Sotheby's Geneva, 21 June 1984, Lot 83.
- Purchased from the above by the present owner, since then private collection Switzerland.

Literature:
- Carena, Carlo/Pult, Stefano: Italo Valenti. Catalogo ragionato dei dipinti, Milan 1998, no. D274 (with colour ill.).
- Acatos, Sylvio: Italo Valenti. Il sogno dell'uccello, in: Azione, no. 50, Lugano 1987, p. 20 f. (with colour ill.).

"And probably in this aimless devotion, in these pauses for stillness, one has the feeling of being closer to oneself, that is, more spontaneous. In this world of the unusual, where things outside and inside us often live hidden or lost, the phenomenon of self-forgetfulness, of working almost automatically, is perhaps quite natural." Italo Valenti