The postilions

The theme of the horse-drawn stagecoach recurs frequently in the artist's mature works, which during the third period often used motifs taken from popular nineteenth-century prints, seen in peasant houses and local shops. Under the lash of the postillion, the group of horses, painted with remarkable sophistication of tonal nuances, gallops with impetus and vehemence towards the foreground of the painting. The speed of the passage is underlined by the large speckled rendering of the dust that rises from the ground and by the barking of a dog on the right, while beyond the meadows dotted with flowers a group of Swiss-style houses constitutes a familiar presence, a reminder heartbreaking of the lost homeland.