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 fantastical 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. He also made some ex-libris plates for book collectors, designed to suggest their taste, personality or achievements. This one shows nymphs supporting two coats of arms above a sun-dial bearing the inscription ‘tempus fugit irreparabile’ (‘time flies and cannot be retrieved’).