Robert Indiana kept a series of illustrated journals during the late 1950s and 1960s, in which he discusses the development of his work.

The journals also provide insight into his daily activities and interests. In this journal page, which the artist began on January 16, 1959, he describes an evening out with the artist Jim Harvey—a German dinner followed by Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal, which Indiana refers to as Bergman's "most pretentious film yet . . . an experience, a very moving and exciting one."

Indiana returned to this page a year later, on January 16, 1960, with a sketch of Jeanne d'Arc, an 83 x 10 inch metal on wood construction. He also notes that he saw the film The Seventh Seal for a second time, on the year anniversary of his first viewing, as well as Bergman's Smiles of a Summer Night.