Trying to catch a runaway horse.

Painted in 1932, when Valdemar Irminger was 81 years old, this work captures the raw, chaotic energy of a horse breaking free from human control. Irminger spent decades developing his skill with animals and figures, and by this late stage of his long career he had moved well away from the Realist style of his early years into a more Romantic sensibility, one that favored drama, motion, and emotional charge over strict documentary precision. A horse in full flight, with a figure scrambling to regain control, is the kind of subject that would have appealed deeply to that Romantic instinct.

Irminger was known for his sensitivity when painting living subjects, particularly children and animals, and that quality likely carries into this scene. The tension between the massive, powerful animal and the human figure trying desperately to stop it gives the composition an immediacy that feels almost cinematic. He exhibited regularly at Charlottenborg throughout his life, and this painting dates from a period when he had already received the Order of the Dannebrog and the Cross of Honour, recognition of a career spanning more than half a century. The subject is humble and action-driven rather than grand, but that grounded quality is part of what makes Irminger's work so consistently engaging.