Marcel Gromaire debuted as a painter at the time Cubism dominated the Montparnasse circuit. While not immune to the prevailing trends of the time, from early on Gromaire's signature style was apparent.
Thematically Gromaire was attached to two predominant subjects throughout his career : land laborers and the female nude. Brought on by memories of his childhood in Noyelles-sur-Sambre, those who tilled the land remained central to Gromaire's painterly evolution. However the female figure was the prevailing subject throughout his career, and it is here that his monumental forms, solid and sculptural, take on their full force. In utter refusal of all things ephemerous, Gromaire's women are always generalized but never indifferent.