Sam Szafran, born Samuel Berger in Paris in 1934, came from a Jewish family of Polish origin. Deeply marked by the Second World War and the loss of many relatives, he later trained in Parisian art schools, including the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. From the 1960s onward, encounters with artists such as Giacometti, Yves Klein, and Jean Tinguely helped shape his highly personal approach to space, memory and perception.

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In the early 1970s, Szafran took over an old lithographic printing workshop on rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis, which he renamed the Bellini Printing House. The place became a decisive subject in his work. In this drawing, the staircase, pillars and shadowy interior guide the eye into the depth of the workshop. The trembling charcoal line and soft contrasts turn the space into something both real and mental. The staircase, already central here, would later become one of Szafran’s recurring motifs, a symbol of vertigo, memory, and inner space.