(Horse handler and stallion)

Kate Barrie

To achieve this image, the artist drew out the linear work in India ink on the verso of the onion skin paper. She then toned the recto with a golden brown ink wash, and then colored the stallion and the figure with gouche, allowing the black lines to show through. In the upper right corner a slight red cartouche, painted in bright red on the verso, shows through.

A Chinese or Mongolian horse trainer attempts to put a bridle on a large stallion that is already saddled. In the trainer's left hand is the broken end of the rein, which appears to have snapped off, suggesting that this stallion is still a somewhat wild beast and the trainer has his work cut out for him.

Very little is known about the artist Kate Barrie, despite clear talent and an eye for mimicking the aged appearance of centuries-old silk paintings. Barrie was born in Oregon on August 5, 1888, and by the 1930s she had settled in Los Angeles. She died there on September 22, 1973.