In 1943 Colquhoun met the Polish artist Jankel Adler who encouraged him to paint from his imagination rather than from observation. Previously concerned with still life and landscape, Colquhoun now turned to concentrate on the figure and he began to explore figurative and animal compositions. This lithograph shows two masked or helmeted figures with a large horse’s head dominating the foreground. The bold, simplified forms almost certainly demonstrate the influence of Picasso and Colquhoun had recently seen the large Picasso exhibition in London. The strong division of the composition into foreground and background calls to mind Colquhoun’s set design for the British theatre, which he was commissioned to produce the same year.