Julio González is known internationally as a pioneer of iron sculptures and the creator of a new concept: the assemblage. Developed between 1928 and 1932, during a period of collaboration with Picasso, this construction method focuses on the use of lines and planes.

In reference to this new form of sculpture developed by both artists, González himself defined it as “drawing in space”. Gonzalez’s commitment to drawing was always present throughout his career, although his early work also focused on painting.

In the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, with the defeat of the Republic, the artist was plunged into a period of precarity and restlessness. World War II and the German occupation of Paris forced him to leave the city and seek refuge in the Lot Valley, in southern France. With no access to the materials he required for sculpting, González focused primarily on drawing and molding plaster. This drawing, which is influenced by Surrealism, presents a character in a brazen attitude. The artist’s stroke that begins on the character’s thigh seems to imply an erect phallus, while one of the arms appears to represent a sickle, reminiscent of his renowned work Montserrat (1936-1937), a symbol of the resistance against fascism and war. Nevertheless, the drawing has a greater connection to the humoristic nature of many Surrealist works, such as Monsieur Cactus and Madame Cactus (1939-1940), in which a human figure is represented with grotesque traits, like a sad self-assured dummy confronted with the inequities of history.