Kupka studied in Prague and Vienna before settling in Paris in 1896, and worked as a poster designer and illustrator. He became involved with the Section d'Or, or the Puteaux Group of artists, which met between 1911 and 1914 at the studios of Albert Gleizes and Marcel Duchamp. Alongside Robert Delaunay and his wife Sonia Delaunay-Turk, Kupka developed Orphism, or Orphic Cubism, an abstract idiom that used luminous colors and curved forms. This sheet, with its curving and nested organic forms, exemplifies this lyrical style. It belongs to a series of studies Kupka made between 1911 and 1930. The related painting, in the Musée national d'art moderne, Paris, was begun in 1911 but not completed until 1927-30.
Signed in pencil at lower right, "Kupka"; stamped at lower left, "Kupka".