The brick barn and its main occupant, the gorgeous stallion, are a moving exemplar of China’s own Native Soil movement. While touching on the themes of rural hardship and peasant life the painting chooses to display an inspiring subject in this scene of the native landscape.
The sharp focus of this “Native Soil†composition highlights the adversity as well as allure of life in rural China. The charms of peasant society in the face of modernization are expressly felt in this rendering of a Chinese stone-house.