Romanian and Israeli visual artist, architect and art theorist Marcel Iancu was the co-inventor of Dadaism and a leading figure of Constructivism in Eastern Europe. An influential figure within all these fields, Iancu was also involved in several key publications during his career - including Romanian neo-avantgarde magazines Contimporanul and Simbolul, as founder, editor, writer and graphic designer. Iancu’s experiments in abstract art stemmed from a theorization of abstract-expressionistic decorations as part of a basic architectural design. In 1926, he was present at the Hasefer Art Show in Bucharest, and created what is often described as the first Constructivist structure in Bucharest. He had several personal exhibitions, in Tel Aviv, Milan and Paris and attended the 1966 Venice Art Biennale. He won the Israel Prize of 1967, in recognition of his work as a painter.

Iancu’s involvement with several other groups of Romanian artists who were similarly striving to promote the principles of modernism, together with his work at the neo-avant-garde magazines led him to create portraits and write articles on fellow artists such as Tristan Tzara, Urmuz or modernist sculptor Constantin Brâncuși, the later of which several portrait drawings exist, including the watercolour in Indian ink on paper.