Karel Appel was a Dutch painter of turbulent, colourful, and semi-abstract compositions. He was a member of the Dutch Experimental Group and co-founder of CoBrA (1948). He was also a noted sculptor and graphic artist. Appel was influenced first by Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, and later by Jean Dubuffet. In 1954, he received the UNESCO Prize at the Venice Biennale and was commissioned to execute a mural for the restaurant of the Stedelijk Museum in 1956. During the 1950’s and ’60’s, he produced several mural paintings for public buildings around the world. He had numerous solo exhibitions in New York, Paris, Berlin, Brussels, Amsterdam, Los Angeles, Vienna, Rome, and Basel, and is featured in public collections in the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the Albertina, Vienna; and others.

Appel experimented widely across painting, sculpture, drawing, and stage design. He never settled into a signature style, media, or subject and always went beyond his classical and academic training. Key aspects of his practice include the reference to folk art and to the uninhibited work of children and the mentally ill, as well as to the spirit of improvisation in jazz. Consequently, his work manifests itself as emotionally charged and spontaneous. The work Personnages is a unique piece from amongst his later works. In it, anthropocentrism is troubled, as it is difficult to say whether the characters shown are human or animal.