This painting is based on "The Fox and the Grapes" a fable by Aesop about a fox who tries to eat grapes from a vine but can't reach them. The fox tries jumping, pole-vaulting, and using a teeter-totter with a rock to reach the grapes, but eventually gives up and walks away. The fox tells himself that the grapes are probably sour anyway and walks away. The story's moral is that sometimes people pretend to dislike things they can't have.