Welz's strong Modernist leanings are clearly evident in this study of his studio, presumably, Worcester. It is a painting about painting. The space is represented through a series of hoizontal and diagonal planes which draws the eye from 'still life' to 'still life' within the painting. But it is more than a series of smaller stil lifes; he masterly deploys line, plane, texture and form to re-create the 'space' as still life.

Jean Max Friedrich Welz was born and educated in Salzburg, Austria. After qualifying as architect in Vienna he joined an architectural studio in Paris. He emigrated to South Africa in 1936 due to ill-health. Initially he worked at the Department of Architecture at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, but after two years moved to the Cape for health reasons, eventually settling in Worcester as principal of the Hugo Naude' Art Centre. He died in Cape Town in 1975.