"Free paddle"

Seven young men stand in a row on a wooden dock, each gripping an oar planted upright like a row of poles. A large pelican with wings fully spread stands among them at the same scale as the men, a dark bird perches on a mooring post at right, and a stork flies in from the upper left carrying something in its beak; a clothed man stands apart at the left, watching the line.

Fine, controlled line and hatching describe feather texture and human musculature with equal care, and the repeated verticals of the oars set up a steady, almost ceremonial rhythm across the sheet. Inserting the oversized pelican into the human lineup gives the composition a quiet, dramatic strangeness.