From his early twenties Craxton was heralded as one of the most important young artists working in London, including having work illustrated in Horizon magazine which was one of the main cultural institutions of the 40s. At that time he was sharing a house with Lucian Freud where they both had studios. In the 1940s both Freud and Craxton were doing mainly still lives and landscapes.

Craxton's initial reputation was as one of the neo-romantic painters, a loose grouping that included as Graham Sutherland, John Minton and Keith Vaughan. These were artists inspired by English romantics like Wordsworth, who focused on the British landscape. It was also a period when there was a revival of illustration and the most important works by these artists at that time tend to be works on paper. In the case of Craxton and Freud it was particularly their drawings that established their reputation.

By the beginning of the 1950s, Craxton began to travel more widely in Europe and became more aware of the work of Picasso and Matisse, whose influence can be felt in drawings of sailors in bars at that time. In the present drawing, "Seated Man", Craxton's way of depicting the table, which appears to recede in two different ways, reflects the varying viewpoints of cubism. "Seated Man" also has echoes of Picasso at this time, with its stark use of line and form, particularly in the subject's facial features.