A report from the Canadian Conservation Institute, Scientific Examination of a Painting signed “Tom Thomson 1913” (2007) points out that the present work was painted over a portrait which seems to be that of a seated black woman. Possibly Thomson reused a canvas discarded by Curtis Williamson. In 1913, Williamson exhibited two works at the RCA in Montreal, which opened 20 November, as follows: no. 312, Colored girl; no. 313, Colored woman. [The same two works may have been shown at AGT Canadian 1926, since two paintings with identical titles are listed as nos. 115 and 116.] Williamson continued to be interested in the subject. His Negro Girl, 1916, is in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.
In January, 1971, Little Falls was cleaned by Eduard Zukowski of the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto.