A barn, a stormy sky, willows bent by the wind, and a leafless tree that looks like a telegraph pole characterise this tense and immobile, devastated landscape. Theodore had just lost his mother. After being discharged from the French army, he had settled in Haute-Garonne. The storm that was brewing was not just a meteorological phenomenon; an air of desolation and imminent ruination pervades the painting (reminiscent of F. Vallotton’s WW1 landscapes). Philippe Kaenel

In 1940, the Strawinskys were living in Haute-Garonne, near Villemur-sur-Tarn, in the house of the painter René Auberjonois’ son, and then moved to Magnanac. In 1941, Théodore was arrested by the Germans and interned in the Recebedou camp. The Road is more than just a road. A dead tree on the left, telegraph wires lost in a sky growing dense with cloud, and the empty road that seems to be passing over a bridge. The landscape looks existential. Philippe Kaenel

His landscapes depicted the places he had visited: the French-speaking part of Switzerland, neigbouring France, the south and south-west of France, and the Mediterranean basin which featured in several of his sea scenes. The Strawinsky couple were very much attracted to classical culture and on a journey through Sicily they stopped at Agrigente. The remains of the Temple of Castor and Pollux stand witness. An olive tree grows up in the midst of the geometric volumes formed by the ruins. Philippe Kaenel