As a young man, Pirosmani worked as a railroad operator. Because of the steep hillsides in the Caucasus, each individual car had a set of brakes, which had to be carefully attended at all times to keep the train from derailing while going downhill. As his job, he was to stand on the outside of the train and control the brakes when he received the signal from the conductor. As such, he spent much of his time outside on the back of the train, traveling through the countryside, watching the hills, animals, lakes, and rural areas go by. Many of Pirosmani’s landscape paintings, such as this one, are inspired by his many travels as a train brake operator.