The carnival host

A wide, crowded composition shows two yoked, horned oxen pulling a sledge piled with golden hay, on which a bare-chested, muscular man sits gripping the load. Around them a dense crowd moves through snow: men in sheepskin coats, women in red embroidered shawls and headscarves, a small child in a fur cap, and figures wearing shaggy goat-horn masks, all set against a flat grey winter sky.

Earthy browns, ochres and deep reds dominate the crowd against the pale grey-white of the snow, applied in dense, loose strokes that blur into one another. Overlapping figures and animals crowd the long horizontal format, creating a sense of jostling movement. The rough brushwork and dense crowd give the scene a boisterous, festive energy.