The artwork titled “Horse Smiling” by Lucian Freud, created around 1939 to 1940, is associated with the Surrealism art movement and belongs to the genre of animal painting. This imaginative and surreal depiction captures the essence of Surrealism through its abstract representation of an animal.
The artwork presents a horse portrayed in a highly stylized and exaggerated manner. The horse’s features are elongated and distorted, contributing to a dream-like and whimsical quality. The lines and contours are bold and unrestrained, emphasizing the surrealistic nature of the piece. The horse seems to radiate an unexpected and almost whimsical smile, blending elements of reality with the fantastical. The simplicity of the color palette, primarily utilizing black ink on a light-toned background, accentuates the surreal and unconventional aspects of the horse, making it a striking example of Surrealist animal painting.