Kidnapping horse

A powerful stallion grabs a woman by her dress with his teeth, which becomes tight around her body. She flails her arms in the face of the attack, similar to the young woman in Flying Folly. The horse is shown rearing up on its hindquarters in a sexual rage.

The dreamlike sense of the print is heightened by the desolate space in which the figures are framed and by the large rodent monsters in the background. The one on the left appears with its jaws open, engulfing a woman, and the one in the centre crouches.

The preparatory drawing, also entitled Kidnapping horse, shows a dead man behind the horse, which would give meaning to the print. It would be based on the legend of the bewitched man turned into a horse and in love with a woman, who abducts her after killing her husband. This is why the horse's head is full of pride and bloodthirsty, sexual passion. Consequently, the monsters in the background would symbolise lasciviousness.

A low, ground-level viewpoint enhances the grandeur of the subject. A pale aquatint is applied to the woman, while a darker one is used in the upper part of the cloud-covered sky.