Jean Bazaine is often regarded as the leader of the French art movement lyrical abstraction, which included other French artists such as Pierre Soulages, Alfred Manessier, and Roger Bissière, as well as artists who returned to Paris after the war, such as André Lanskoy, Jean-Paul Riopelle, and Zao Wou-Ki. A common thread among these artists was a distancing from the art movements that had dominated before the war, namely cubism, surrealism, and geometric abstraction. Through lyrical abstraction, the artists found space to express their personal feelings, and the style became entirely predominant during much of the 1950s. The gouache in question is from the artist's prime period, the late 1940s and early 1950s, and likely represents an abstracted tree. Erik Olson's daughter Viveca Bosson lived with Bazaine in France for 20 years, and she has recounted that Bazaine did not focus on the branches of a tree, but rather on the spaces in between. With this insight, the work indeed appears to be just such a tree.