Gérard Schneider was a Swiss-born but naturalized French painter, born in 1896 and died in 1986. He is often presented as belonging to the New School of Paris, following the "School of Paris" in the inter-war period. But Schneider's work goes beyond this label, it is characterized by his attachment to lyrical abstraction, also known as gestural. He was one of the pioneers of this genre, which was born and enjoyed a certain success after the Second World War. Schneider was interested in Kandinsky's abstraction, of which he was a fervent supporter. However, it was during the 1930s that he began to find his own style. He became interested in surrealism and his style evolved: black began to take an important place in his work, he began to write poems that helped him in the creation of his pictorial works. In 1947, he exhibited for the first time with Pierre Soulages and Hans Hartung at the Salon des Indépendants. They become friends and he will exhibit with them several times. Schneider is a proponent of a completely abstract art, which is free of any real or figurative dimension. He draws his inspiration from his own interiority. From the 1950s onwards, Schneider became known internationally and was recognized as one of the most important painters of post-war abstraction.