evidence suggests that this work was completed prior to metzinger's paintings entitled "la danse (bacchante)" or "two nudes in an exotic landscape": (1) there exists an oil on canvas study of the latter dated circa 1905-1906, located at the university of iowa with the title "two nudes in a garden", 91.4 x 63.8 cm with a similar radiating sun above the bathers. (2) the brushstrokes are smaller in size consistent with metzinger's style of late 1905. (3) in 1906 and 1907 metzinger's brushstrokes became larger and more organized, structured within a highly geometrized framework already proto-cubist in appearance. (4) as its name implies, "coucher de soleil no. 1" might have been the first in a series of sunsets. though no other works by metzinger are known by the titles "coucher de soleil no. 2" or "no. 3", the artist did produce other works with sunsets during the same period: "landscape with fountain", for example, an oil on canvas measuring 53.3 x 73.6 cm; "paysage pointilliste", 1906-07, an oil on canvas measuring 54.5 x 73 cm; "matin au parc montsouris", ca. 1906, oil on canvas, 49.9 x 67.7 cm; or even "la tour de batz au coucher de soleil", 54 x 73 cm, an oil on canvas ca. 1905.