In 1907, following the crushing of the Romanian Peasants' Revolt, Băncilă began traveling the country and attempting to gather evidence of government repression and violence. The result was a series of twelve paintings (not all of them surviving), including his famous figure of an old peasant standing open-armed (titled "Înainte de 1907", "Before 1907"), several images of dead bodies piled up in fields (being looked on by soldiers), and the eponymous "1907", depicting three ragged peasants running into rifle fire.