The title of the painting, 'Forest of Rambouillet', refers to a forest located west of Paris, near where the artist used to live. Epstein uses a predominantly green palette, free brushstrokes and generously applied paint to create a textured and vivid surface typical of his later expressive style.

Epstein was born in Lodz, Poland, where he began working in a local collective workshop of Jewish painters. He studied in Munich at the Academy of Art, and then settled in Paris in 1912, where he was associated with the École de Paris movement (a loose association of mainly Jewish émigré artists). He was deported to Auschwitz, where he died, in 1944. Epstein enjoyed experimenting and his technique evolved from early Fauvism to Expressionism. His work, lavishly and vividly painted, depicts landscapes, peasants working in the fields, fishermen at work, interiors, portraits and nudes.