Horse and Rider was created during the last years of Dalí's formal involvement with the Surrealist movement. Displaying the artist's extraordinary talents as a draughtsman, the present work intricately features the landscape near Dali's home in Port Lligat in Northern Spain which dominate much of the artist's imagery in the mid-1930s. Executed in 1935 during an ominous period of political uncertainty in Europe, and especially in Spain, the horse and rider triumphantly charge ahead, heroically dominating the landscape.

The theme of the horse and rider was prevalent in the work of Dalí during the 1930s. In the present work one can draw parallels to the story of Don Quixote in which the artist was particularly interested. With a scroll in his raised hand the rider charges forward, determined to deliver a message possibly to the city seen in the distance.