The middle of the 1950s until 1960 was a period of artistic trial for Zobel. He was soul searching, trying to depart from the Boston style and yet unable to find the visual language for which he was to be known. In 1953, he had started working tentatively on his abstraction, but unsatisfied with them, he abandoned his first attempts and destroyed many of his works. Zobel was also struggling between the demands of the business life and the need to paint. As if leading a double life, he would rise early just to paint and continue doing so in the late afternoons and well into the evening.