The present work is part of the Valaisan tradition of representing rural communities, but rather than depicting villagers at work or in prayer, as is often the case, it shows an impromptu gathering of singers in a chalet gathered around a fire, which is the only source of light in the composition. For this reason, the palette is deliberately dark, apart from the orange faces illuminated by the flames from the fireplace. The intimacy of the scene is suggested by the figures painted from behind in the foreground, as well as the group of women sitting on the left, who, forming a circle with the three singers, close the group.

Born in Geneva in 1888, Marguerite was the daughter of the painter Eugène Gilliard, a professor at the École des beaux-arts. From a very young age she mixed in artistic circles. Trained by her father and Édouard Ravel, then in Paris with the portraitist Jacques-Émile Blanche, she exhibited at the Salon d’Automne already at the age of sixteen and then became a member. In 1909 in Savièse, she met Édouard Vallet, who she married two years later. Marguerite’s premature death at the age of thirty unfortunately put an end to her promising career.