[1] The painting depicts the artist and his friend, the businessman Pere Romeu (1862–1908), in a red automobile.

In front of the car, the artist's dog Ziem stands on a basket and scouts for an oncoming carriage.

The talent of Casas as one of the great poster artists of Catalan modernism can be noticed in the imagery of the painting.

[2] This canvas actually replaced another one by Casas, with the same men riding on a tandem, in 1901, at the decoration of the art café "Els Quatre Gats", usually attended by both of them, which they had co-founded and was a stronghold of modernism in Barcelona.

The two paintings came to symbolize the transition between the old (the tandem bicycle) and the new (the automobile), and both have become synonymous with Catalan modernism.