Sam Francis studied in San Francisco, where he created his first abstract painting in 1946. His painting style was soon unmistakable: Biomorphic, mollusk-like forms filled his canvases. In 1950, Francis left his native California and moved to Paris, where he became an important mediator between the gestural art of the French Tachists and the American Abstract Expressionists. St. Honoré is one of the last pictures in his series of White Paintings. Both the restrained coloration and the title refer to the time in Paris before Francis turned to intense red, blue, and black tones after various sojourns in the south of France.