A horse startled by a rooster.

In this dynamic painting, a powerful horse rears back, its eyes wide with alarm, in a stable setting. The source of its fright is a small, unassuming rooster, barely visible at the bottom right, caught mid-crow. The scene captures a fleeting moment of primal fear and instinct, highlighting the stark contrast between the horse's raw power and the rooster's trivial threat. The artist, Valdemar Irminger, creates a sense of immediate action through the horse's contorted posture and the dramatic light that picks out its muscular form against the shadowed interior. Painted in 1926, the work showcases a dramatic approach to animal subjects, a theme Irminger explored alongside portraits and children's scenes throughout his career.