When the National Socialists declared his art "degenerate" in 1933, Klee returned to his native Bern. He had spent the previous twenty-seven years studying, working, and teaching in Germany. Now in Bern, Klee lived in a small three-room apartment on the outskirts of town. He was internationally known, yet he had no following in Switzerland. He sold little and was supported only by a small group of faithful friends.

Austere and pensive, The One Who Understands is a fine example of the artist's later style. That style consists here in the image's larger scale, simple design, and patches of white, rust, and beige in the areas of unprimed canvas that Klee left untouched. The painting belongs to a group of some thirteen works from 1933–34, mostly drawings, that evoke the schematic diagrams of the human cranium found in medical textbooks.