Landscape painting is rare in Spanish art. This rarity can be linked to Spanish history. The Spanish Counter-Reformation of the sixteenth century strictly rejected both classicism and humanism. Strictly interpreted, Catholic doctrine viewed the subject of human nature, and nature in general, as depraved and indulgent. Contemplating the beauty of nature was a hedonistic, pagan, and heretical act.

As a result, a variant of landscape painting developed. In the second half of the 16th century, when El Greco came to Spain, a mystical and poetic current swept the country. Instead of depicting the land as lush and welcoming, artists used the landscape as the setting for sacred events. In El Greco's landscapes we can see this "fire" or passion. His edgy, tormented, mystical, and visionary approach to painting not only expressed the intellectual climate of his day, but also became the model for the next generation of Spanish painters centuries later, including Francisco Goya, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, and Joan Miro.

This particular work was completed in 1952 after Picasso's Cubism style had been developed. The choppy shapes remind the viewer of a collage or synthetic cubism. In synthetic cubism, cut out fragments of paper, wallpaper or newspapers are pasted into the composition. Developed with Georges Braque, this style analyzed objects based on their shape.