When World War II broke out and the German occupation spread, Braque left Varengeville‑sur‑Mer for the Limousin and then the Pyrenees before returning to Paris in the autumn of 1940.

During this period, fish often reappear in his work. Echoing his anxieties in those troubled times, the fish are dark in 1941–1942, as in Les Poissons noirs (1942, Collection Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou) or in La Carafe et les poissons (1941), dedicated to Jean Paulhan, who wrote to him:

“The fish makes me think deeply of that mixture of extreme violence and serenity that is nevertheless yours.”

While these works exude a considered austerity, it is as the war draws to a close that the palette lightens and the colors become more joyful. The gesture grows freer, the grounds become more translucent, as in our Aquarium of 1944.