The photograph was taken while Anton Chekhov was recovering from a severe pulmonary hemorrhage. He spent the end of March and the beginning of April 1897 in the Ostroumov Clinic in Moscow, where the writer was diagnosed with an apical process and given a final diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis. This was concealed from his father and mother, at Chekhov’s request.

Anton Chekhov wrote in May 1897,

With his left hand the writer is hugging his pet, a dachshund named Bromine. Anton Pavlovich loved all animals, but it was dogs that enjoyed his special favor. Together with the Melikhovo estate Chekhov received from the former owner watch dogs, including Sharik, Arapka, as well as mongrel puppies Muir and Meriliz.

Two “dachshunds” were given to Chekhov by the publisher Nikolay Leikin, who may have suggested to the writer the plot of “Kashtanka” several years before. At night in Melikhovo the dachshunds raked the soil with the seeds sown out of the flower boxes and scattered overshoes all over the place, and in the morning, they stirred up a commotion in the yard with the local dogs. They were given “medical” names Quinine and Bromine. Quinine was brown and Bromine was black.

Anton Chekhov wrote,

Chekhov informed his many friends about events in the life of the dachshunds, but he gave the most detailed reports on developments in the life of Bromine and Quinine, to the publisher Nikolay Leikin, the master of Bromine and Quinine’s parents:

The writer’s brother Mikhail Chekhov reminisced,