Over the course of the 1950s, Pierre Soulages covered his canvases even more with the colour black, which invaded the space of the canvas while nonetheless leaving room for light, which the artist treated with contrasts. Soulages expanded his canvas formats during this decade, and we can see, in Peinture 195 x 130 cm, 1er septembre 1957 for example, that the brush strokes – in comparison with the previous painting from 1955 – are tending to lengthen, giving rhythm to the composition based on a “longitudinal dynamic”, punctured by several vertical bands, still superimposed to bring depth and luminosity.