This painting was made while Beuys was a student at the Staatliche Kunstakademie (State Academy of Art) in Düsseldorf, where he studied from 1947 to 1951. In this period immediately after the Second World War, in which Beuys had participated as a fighter pilot, nature was a central source of inspiration. Much of the artist's work included plant and animal forms. Here, he has emphasised the simple outlines of the three elements of the picture, which are arranged harmoniously to form a circle. Beuys had shown a talent for painting in watercolour from a young age, with some of his paintings displayed in his school.