In the spirit of Cubism, Stanislaw Kubicki reduces everything in his painting—the animals, the landscape, and the background—to angular and acute-angled planes. Small, mostly square patches give them an internal structure. Sometimes lighter, sometimes darker, they evoke the impression of light and shadow. Kubicki creates fluid transitions particularly in the lower part of the painting, thereby illustrating the textures of the forest floor. Sharply delineated against the background is the doe, whose body forms the largest, largely unstructured shape in the entire composition. Three angularly broken straight lines are enough for Kubicki to depict the doe’s back and neck. With one leg gracefully splayed, she bends down toward the fawn. She gazes at it through semicircular eyes and takes in its scent. The calf’s forms are highly fragmented and more detailed than those of the doe. The head and torso cannot be clearly identified. Only three legs are discernible, one running approximately parallel to the mother’s, the other two pointing in the opposite direction. When extended, the middle legs form an acute-angled triangle pointing toward the cow, through which Kubicki formally emphasizes the bond between mother and calf.

After dropping out of architecture school, Kubicki transferred to the Royal Academy of Arts in Berlin in 1910. Shortly thereafter, he met his future wife, the artist Margarete Schuster. Stationed in Posen, among other places, during World War I, Kubicki established contacts with Polish cultural figures that continued even after the war. He contributed to German and Polish magazines and participated in artist groups. He also exhibited in both countries, varying the Cubist style he had developed around 1920 but ultimately remaining true to it. For political reasons, Kubicki emigrated to Poland in 1934, while his wife remained in Berlin. To protect their family, the couple divorced in 1937 but remained in contact. In 1940, Kubicki joined the Polish resistance. He was arrested by the Gestapo and likely died in January 1942 as a result of torture.