In the years immediately following World War II, Dubuffet began to collect and study objects made by children, the mentally ill, and the untutored. He called this type of art, which inspired his own work, "art brut" (raw art). In this sheet, he incised four figures into a ground of gouache, exposing the rough sandpaper he used as a support. In keeping with his admiration of art brut, his technique shares more with graffiti and the scrawls of children than with academic drawing. The artist once remarked that art "should be born of the material and the tool, and it should retain the mark of the tool and its struggle with the material." This work was one of several options Dubuffet created for the cover of the avant-garde American magazine View, but the magazine ceased production before it was published.
Inscribed, recto, upper right, in brush and white gouache: "à René Guilly / J. Dubuffet / 46;" verso, in red ink stamp: Sandpaper manufacturer's label.