Yes, one has to use quite a bit of imagination but the model for this really did come from Robert Capa's  photograph of Gary Cooper, nimbly making his way across a fallen tree fording a stream (not of consciousness). A few posts back there was one of a racing track official in a Gogol-esque coat. Now the puzzle for me is: was the fishing rod a prop or was Cooper really fishing?  The vagaries of translating the image off one page and onto another with a broad brush has given Cooper's coat more movement, where one ( well, make that me)might imagine that he is hying off after the fish on foot, remonstrating with them about how he can offer them a better deal, even a speaking part, if they come across.