Philipson’s work of the late 1940s and early 1950s was much indebted to the expressionistic style of Oskar Kokoschka. Kokoschka’s painting ‘Zrání’ had been acquired by the National Galleries of Scotland in 1942 and it had a profound impact on the young Philipson. The wild brushstrokes and vivid colours of ‘Landscape with Huntsmen’ also show the influence of the ‘Edinburgh School’ of painters (known for their love of the physical texture of paint and use of rich colour), whom Philipson knew from his time studying at Edinburgh College of Art. The painting’s reverse features an unfinished work by Philipson’s wife Brenda Mark, whom he married in 1949.