At the beginning of his career Kaus was influenced by the work of the Expressionists, notably by Erich Heckel whom he had met in Belgium during the First World War.

In the '20s the human figure was the central theme of Kaus's work. He was not attracted to the street and circus scenes favoured by his contemporaries. Unlike the Brcke artists he preferred static figures and hence he would often paint his subjects as they slept. Having a deep admiration for the Delft painter Jan Vermeer, it was Vermeer's crisply-composed interior scenes that probably led him to work in this style.