Although he spent most of his adult life living in Paris, the painter and graphic artist Konstanty Brandel often visited his native Poland and continued to consider himself a Polish artist. His work may be described as Symbolist and has much in common with that of figures such as Odilon Redon and Gustave Doré, although Hieronymus Bosch, Giovanni Battista Piranesi and Francisco de Goya have also been cited as possible influences.

Brandel’s imagery often includes architecture or disturbing landscapes. Both are frequently inhabited by men, women and animals engaged in strange or ritualistic behaviour and sometimes endowed with supernatural powers such as the ability to float or fly. Less frequently he made portraits, some of which, like this one, were self-portraits with his muse.