In a letter dated May 1987 Rego wrote that ‘This picture is about what is going on between the girl and the dog, and how the two are placed. There is some ‘looming’ going on because she is concentrating hard on him, her face is very close to his; she is very involved. Her skirt is very important too because it is like a snail’s shell, and it has ‘secrets’. Both girl and dog are washed up, adrift on the sand.

Originally, I wanted to call this picture Beached, because that is what they are. Also the crab is beached. The crab would be twitching if it weren’t dead. But Snare is a better word, more aggressive, less woeful. The shell skirt is facing up; the crab’s shell is facing down, and from between them runs the horse, escaping his cart. I wanted to paint a picture to look like a sepia drawing, so I tried to keep it as muted as possible. In the end I had to introduce a bit of colour, in the camellia on the ground and the oleander in her hair.’

Cries & Whispers New Works for the British Council Collection, The British Council, 1988