A Peep at the Train

This composition by the Orientalist painter Swoboda shows a group of children in the company of an old man, positioned by the barrier near a railway line. A village is in the background. The foreground of the picture is dominated by the strong pool of shadow cast by the figures and the barrier.

This painting - like Swoboda’s other paintings of Indian subjects - can be compared with contemporary late nineteenth-century photographs of Indians.