This piece was created in 1927, it was one of Roy's first large scale Surrealist pieces, and established his reputation. The purpose of this piece was to disrupt reality, which is the main component of all surrealist pieces.This piece became increasingly important during World War II. It illustrated the fears mixed with common, everyday settings, just as the war did. In the minds of the people all over the world, it brought chaos into their home. Terror into their lives. Everything from the staircase, to the floorboards is textbook French apartment building. This may be because of Pierre's upbringing in France, as he was raised in the small city of Nantes as a child, and lived in an apartment building. Just like this one. It was speculated that Roy himself was afraid of snakes, a common phobia, giving this piece a more powerful personal impact. The function of this piece, much like the purpose, is to show the irrational fears of the average person, by tying in a common phobia with everyday life. Showing the fear of something lurking around the corner, in the shadows, now being shown literally in broad daylight, right in center frame. ...we see that Roy used dramatic light and shadows in the left majority of this piece, and has shaded out the right hand corner, also including some glare on the staircase railing, as well as the door handles. The snake head casts a threatening shadow on the floor. [https://prezi.com/0gmw7zzz6wpw/danger-on-the-stairs/] Unusual and "mystère onirique" are the keys to his work which represents, in meticulous detail, recognizable scenes and objects which are taken out of natural context, distorted and combined in fantastic ways as they might be in dreams; its sources are in the art of fauvist painter Henri Rousseau and also De Chirico who was a very good friend of him. Danger on the Stairs, 1927 or 1928 is an overt example of fantastic dissociation, but nonetheless effective for that. Pierre Roy is especially appreciated in the United States where he often exhibited his paintings; several of them were reproduced on the cover of Vogue magazine. Among his admirors were Jean Cocteau and Aragon. [http://www.mcs.csueastbay.edu/~malek/Surrealism/Roy1.html]