After André Derain’s death in 1954 his widow, Alice, was persuaded that something must be done to secure the existence of the works in unfired clay, terracotta and plaster, which the artist had produced during the last years of his life and now lay turning to dust in his abandoned studios. At the suggestion of Pierre Cailler, she agreed to have nearly eighty of his works cast in bronze by the Brotal Foundry in Mendrisio, which, she stated, had been Derain’s intention for many of them.