Composition (1953) is one of the few works by Victor Brauner that depicts landscapes, created during one of his stays in the South of France. It marks the only time he painted a series of compositions inspired by nature.

In 1953, the painter spent his summer in Golfe Juan on the Côte d'Azur and visited Auguste Renoir’s house in Cagnes-sur-Mer. Having a great appreciation for Renoir’s work, the visit had a deep impact on him. Brauner wrote: “This house is on a huge estate surrounded by a park of olive trees, immortelle against the background of orange trees fading and melting in the flickers of light in an endless sky. A great emotion came over me, for as soon as you cross the fence of the property you enter the reality of Renoir’s paintings.” The impressions and emotions recorded in this text by Victor Brauner appear to have been an inspiration for the watercolour painted on 3.8.1953. (Mihaela Petrov, “René Magritte și Victor Brauner – Renoir și „pictura în lumina soarelui”, Dilema Veche, Year XVIII, no. 889, 22 – 28 April 2021, p. 21)

Painter, sculptor and Surrealist poet Victor Brauner was trained in Romania, Austria and France. Going through several stages - dadaist, abstractionist, expressionist, his work is infused by the realm of dreams and the unconscious, with an emphasis on occultism. Ranging from mythologies to ancient world cultures, his art constitutes itself as a fertile melange of sources that find their meeting point in Surrealism. In 1966, Brauner was invited to represent France at the Venice Biennale. His works are included in some of the most important collections worldwide, including the Peggy Guggenheim Foundation in Venice, Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection and the Centre Pompidou, Paris.