Hedge and Cypress was the first work George Murphy created after moving to Florence, Italy, in March 1977. He based the painting on a photograph he had taken during a trip the previous summer to a Roman theater in Fiesole, just outside Florence. Murphy also made three preparatory sketches of the scene to experiment with the relationship between the tree and the path. The oil painting was completed in a studio apartment overlooking the Piazza Santa Croce. Here and in other works featuring bushes and trees, he wanted the objects to dominate the painting and to take on a more forceful presence, rather than serve the traditional role of background imagery.