One of the leitmotiv of André Masson’s career was his connection with nature and open spaces. His attachment to this, in contrast with the urban landscape, was supported by different
philosophical and intellectual currents of thought which recurrently had an influence on the artist’s practice throughout the years. Masson always had a deep admiration for Nietzsche and his philosophy - a sympathy which was at the core of his breakup with the Surrealists in 1929, after 5 years of being part of the movement.

After having experienced the traumas of World War I as a soldier, Masson lived in the United States during World War II, initially in New York, where he continued to experiment with automatism (an ongoing practice from his period with the Surrealists) and influenced younger painters such as Jackson Pollock. He later moved to Connecticut, where he made the landscape his source of inspiration once again, and to which he eventually added American Indian motifs and themes from Iroquois mythology. 'Vestiges d’un massacre’, together with some of his other postwar paintings, reflects a unique synthesis of diverse influences - Zen Buddhism, Asian calligraphy mixed with American Abstract Expressionism and French Tachisme, presented with unique gestural freedom and physicality.