According to Robert de Montesquiou, Bresdin had titled this print Arcachon, after the town on the French Atlantic Coast in the Landes, which was being developed as a seaside resort from the 1850s onwards and becoming fashionable and known for its fanciful (if somewhat tasteless) architecture. It may have been here that Bresdin saw the building which inspired this print, although it could also be based on a photo in a property developer's prospectus.
The print was first executed as an etching, of which however only a single impression of the first state is known (Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris; inv. no. 1995-244). The artist then had the image transferred onto a lithographic stone and printed a small number of it. By 1873 at the latest, he made several changes to the etched plate by adding a tall conifer and increasing the height of other trees on the right, and enlarging the turrets on the left tower. Of this second, final state of the etching, he printed a few impressions, some of which have survived, and also had a transfer lithograph made. Of this, an edition of 110 impressions was printed in 1873.
Both lithographic stones were reprinted later, the second state with a small damage to the stone.
The present impression is the lithographic version of the first state, but it is difficult to say whether it is a lifetime impression or a posthumous one. The blindstamp at lower right, created by his daughter Rodolphine, was both applied to impressions from his estate as well as to later reprints from existing plates and stones.