The Bokhara Coat is a portrait of Gertler's close friend Valentine Dobrée. Gertler had visited Paris with Dobrée and her husband in March 1920. Whilst there, he took the opportunity to study the works of Cézanne and Renoir.

Although, he had hitherto been most interested in the former, the latter was to be a decisive influence on his subsequent development. The simplified, heavy forms and warm colours of the Bokhara Coat, for instance, although very much Gertler's own, are a response to the later work of Renoir.