Benjamin West's "Death on the Pale Horse"

This paper will analyze the context in which the work of art, "Death on the Pale Horse" was created. The discussion will also identify the medium which the artist chose as well as highlight some of the more interesting aspects of this Benjamin West painting.

Two copies of the painting, both of which have been exhibited and reproduced as authentic works by Benjamin West, are in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. However, in articles written by a former director for that museum, Fiske Kimball, the old director questions whether these two paintings are actually copies. The articles were published in 1931 and 1932, and art historians now believe that the two originals now hang elsewhere (Von Erffa, 392).

A pen and brown ink and wash heightened with white paint is kept in the Royal Academy of Arts in London. That wash or drawing is 22 1/2 by 44 inches large and is signed in the bottom right center. West exhibited this work in 1784 at the Royal Academy along with three other studies which he intended to paint. The more famous work, for which West chose oil on canvas as his final medium, now hangs at the Detroit Institute of Arts. This painting is 23 1/2 by 50 1/2 inches and is signed in the lower right corner "B. West 1796." Historians are not sure whether the artist was pressed for money and sold the painting to a neighbor for 50 pounds during the last few years of his life, or to a portrait painter (Von Erffa 391-392). At any

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re are as many things going on in the background as in the foreground. For example, there are bodies with clothes ripped from them in battle and a fallen horse at the front center of the painting, but the background also contains several winged demons and murderers who ride in from some distant place. As for the forms in the painting, they are realistic, and never flat in appearance. The horses are round and full of muscle, the lion's claws are huge and tear blood from the flesh of the man the lion attacks. Even a baby's naked body appears heavy. The forms are perfectly executed and reinforce the drama of the scene that the artist intended to depict. All of the shapes are intended to be full to give weight and seriousness to the piece. None of the forms are light or airy, even the clouds are large and full. And most of the figures have heavy shadowing and strips of highlighting to deepen the contrast between the dark and light colors. With respect to the lines in the painting, the lines are very definitely painted. Each figure in the painting, including every one of the ghosts which float in from the heavens, is well-carved. The lines are harsh and coarse, as if the painter wanted his viewers to see every detail. The

Category: Arts - B