Andre Masson was one of the most prominent French masters of the 20th century. He was one of the originators of surrealism — an art and literature movement that emerged in the 1920s and incorporated the use of allusions and paradoxical combinations of forms. Masson bonded with André Breton, the founder of surrealism, in 1924, when the manifesto of the new movement was developed. He remained faithful to surrealism for many years.

n the late 1940s, Masson gradually moved to the genre of large-scale epic landscapes. He took an interest in the effects of water surfaces, fog, and changes of light and air, studying the experience of Claude Monet and William Turner.

The painting “Flood” was created during the artist’s trip to Venice and belongs to the series of views of the Venetian lagoon. In this series, playwright Eugene Ionesco saw a very intense, trembling light that creates dreams of an infinite space.