Considered in the early 1940s as a colorist of great sensitivity, Edouard Pignon (1905-1993) is regarded by critics as one of the most promising painters of his generation. It shows the desire to take his autonomy from the group of "Young Painters of French Tradition", which includes Jean Le Moal and Alfred Manessier and in which he no longer recognizes himself.

From the immediate post-war period, the artist chose a free and independent figuration and inaugurated a personal research that marked his difference from the movements in which he was interested. He distanced himself from the Parisian art scene and the "all abstract" that dominates current events and moved for a few months to Ostend (Belgium) in November 1946, driven by a desire to renew his painting.

Seduced by the "delicate atmosphere" of the port, the "noise of shapes", the "light swing of light and veils", Édouard Pignon sketches in solitude a new mode of production, a decisive turning point in his work. His painting evolves towards a "realism" that expresses both the certainties of a style and a conviction of reality.

During the winter of 1946-1947, the change initiated under the Mediterranean sun of Collioure was confirmed by the aesthetic shock caused by the landscapes of Ostend. An essential moment in his creative approach that paves the way for seriality for his entire production, watercolors and paintings - transpositions of his sensations in front of fishermen working in the icy air - also testify to a reflection on movement. Between the enchantment of the port landscape and the tragic climate of a city destroyed by war, Édouard Pignon invents a path of discovery to create a new space and a new painting reality.