Bram van Velde was one of the leading painters of the post-war École de Paris. He worked first as a house painter before moving to Paris in 1924 to develop himself further as an artist. In this initial period he drew inspiration from Matisse, particularly his talent to make reality subordinate to an interplay of lines and colour. Thus his paintings of the 1924-1931 period typically have this same pronounced interplay. After 1931 his work is more sober of form.