Xavier Gosé is known above all else for his elegant works and high society portraits which he produced when coming into contact with the cosmopolitan environment that existed in Paris prior to the First World War.

However, prior to that period he had been part of the bohemian scene in Barcelona in 1900. His work was heavily influenced by the work of Isidre Nonell and by that of the Swiss painter and poster illustrator Théophile Alexandre Steinlen, one of the referential artists at the time.

In this composition a man and a woman locking arms walk in front of an undefined brownish colored background. It might be a brick wall in a suburban street, perhaps at dusk. The figures are cut out clearly over this background much like Japanese prints, which fascinated art-nouveau artists.

The curved position of the woman’s back and the lifted lapels of the man’s coat convey the idea of precariousness born out of exhaustion, cold, and disappointment.