Belgian artist Joseph Lacasse ranks amongst of the most individual painters of the Ecole de Paris. Born in 1894 into the desolation of a working-class family in Tournai, Lacasse's artistic vocation was first outlined at the local stone quarries where he worked as a young teenager. Lacasse was drawn to the austere structure of the stone, the reflections of which he intuitively rendered in a fragmented way. Lacasse's 'Cailloux' in pastels on tracing paper, display the luminosity of the stone. The implications of these youth works became later apparent when Lacasse returned to further exploring the theme of light at different points of his long career. Etude addresses fragmentation, luminosity and composition in a geometrical abstract fashion.

The works of Lacasse are included in the following museums: Musée d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris; Musée national d'art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris; Musée des Beaux-Arts, Brussels; Musée de Tournai, Tournai; Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv; Eilat Museum, Eilat; Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris.