In a recent exhibition at the Tate Gallery entitled "Paris Post-War Art and Existentialism 1945-55" Jean Hélion was revered as one of the foremost artists of this epoque, epitomizing the very spirit of the age. Having initially made his name as an abstract artist, Hélion increasingly turned towards figural painting in the Forties, and then in the Fifties he painted a number of still-lifes using a very direct style, as is apparent in "Les Pains". Pierre Bruguière divided Hélion's career into two phases, referring to his work from 1951 as "natural form", and his preceeding oeuvre as "logical form". However, when Hélion turned to painting scenes from everyday life, he did not offer us the conventional reality we might expect, and the images presented were always arranged in a certain classical order. Hélion's style is quite distinct, and "Les Pains" can be related to a number of other still-lifes, notably, "Dos aux Pains", dated 1952, and the watercolour, "Pains sur une Table", 1951; both in the Karl Flinker Gallery in Paris.