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Between 1944 and 1947 Helion had a series of one-man shows -- at the Paul Rosenberg Gallery in New York and in Paris -- of his new realistic pictures.

They reincarnated the figures of human beings banished from his canvases since the 1920's.

These new pictures focussed on the familiar and commonplace objects that he had heard the men in his prison camp talking about as the things they missed most, hence associated with the sense of lost freedom: the cafe at the corner, the newspaper kiosk, the girls in doorways and windows along the street, the golden-crusted French bread they lacked, the cigarettes denied them.

One of the pictures was of a man with hat drawn over his face ceremoniously lighting a cigarette ; ;

others were of men doffing their hats to each other, carrying umbrellas with pomp, reading newspapers, or simply showing loaves of bread spread out.