Hatton created Kuh Wagon while studying at the Royal College of Art in London. Compared to the etched lines in Hatton’s Tree in Winter, the engraved lines in Kuh Wagon, made by removing copper from the plate by pushing a burin across its surface, are linear and lack the gestural character of those in Tree in Winter. The source of Hatton’s image is a photograph she took while visiting Austria between school terms in London. The artist delighted in observing the customs and practices associated with agriculture while touring Europe in 1935-36. Writing her brother Eddie in July 1935 from Vienna, Hatton shared her observations of agriculture in Prague, commenting “The women [in Prague] work even harder than in Germany but cow wagons and ox teams are not as common.” The following week, she wrote her family from Salzburg, Austria, exclaiming “Just now two ox teams with 2 big wagon loads of hay passed by,” presumably referring to the scene depicted in Kuh Wagon.