In his first steps as an artist Vlaminck focused on colour and form, endeavouring to incorporate the latter into the space, the light and the structure of the composition. He employed pure colour directly as it came out of the tube. Unfortunately, his use of low quality oil paints has meant that some of his works from that period are poorly conserved.
 
Afterwards his work saw a return to form, a kind of post-Cezanne period in which the construction of volume and space verged on . From 1912 to his death in 1958 his production drew steadily closer to figuration, which he undertook as if he were painting a landscape or a still life.
 
Landscape was the genre this great painter was most strongly attracted to throughout his career, more so even than figures or objects. And it was precisely within landscape that he felt freer to express his feelings. This is particularly visible in his snow-covered landscapes, where his use of light and of black, white and grey tones shows a nature in mourning where lead-coloured skies hang over the houses as if they were birds of prey.
 
And although this particular example is not a snowed landscape, it nevertheless still contains something of that desolation, of those hesitating lines, of that solitude conveyed through matter-laden brushwork.