Born in Bordeaux in 1885, André Lhote moved to Paris in 1906 and from 1912 became associated with the Section d’Or group of cubists. Lhote was particularly influential as a teacher and writer on cubism. He established the Académie André Lhote in 1925 which counted Australians, Americans, Brazilians, English, Japanese, Eastern Europeans and North Africans among its students.

Australian artists Dorrit Black, Grace Crowley and Anne Dangar all attended the Académie in the late 1920s. Reflecting on this time, Crowley would later write that “1927, 1928, 1929 were the happiest years of my life. Why? Because they were productive… the ‘woman’s role’ was reduced to a minimum. I could work everyday at my painting.”

The composition principles that Crowley learned from Lhote (and subsequently Albert Gleizes) not only formed the basis of her own practice but were communicated to students in Sydney via her letters from abroad that were published in the student journal 'Undergrowth'. Subsequently, in 1932, Crowley established an art school in Sydney with Rah Fizelle, where Lhote’s principles were central and communicated to a new circle of artists that included Ralph Balson, Frank and Margel Hinder.

'Maison à Tunis' depicts a scene in Sidi Bou Said, a town on the Mediterranean coast, close to Tunis. It was painted during the artist’s 1929 trip to Tunisia where he presented a lecture and exhibition at the invitation of the Société des écrivains de l’Afrique du Nord. It is a work that speaks strongly of the international networks fostered by Lhote and to the spread of cubism beyond France.