"Death on the Pale Horse"

As for the context in which the large oil painting was made, some scholars consider the subject matter which Benjamin West chose in this particular piece to be apocalyptic because it was a response to things which were happening around him (Von Erffa, 84). During the time when he made the painting, public outcry against the political upheavals in Europe were absolutely forbidden and had West made any political statements about the world in which he lived, he would have short-circuited his career as a painter. Thus, some art historians believe that he chose, instead, to comment through his artwork (Keyes, 3-6).

There are several differences between the wash and the oil on canvas works. West made significant changes, all considered improvements, to his pen and ink wash study. In the study, a figure kneels with outstretched arms in the lower left corner. But, in the oil on canvas painting, this small figure has been replaced by a man holding a spear. Also, there is a family fleeing the scene in the study, but in the painting the fleeing family was replaced by a youth who is being struck by lightning. There are numerous additions in the painting. One figure now holds an empty cup. The sky now bears figures which represent the Demons of Discord and Envy (Carey, 17), and two eagles which attacked a heron in the study never made it into the oil painting. Nevertheless, the sketch is sti

ll considered one of West's masterpieces, and this fact was even recognized during his lifetime (Von Erffa, 145).

Like the painting, the sketch exhibits some of West's finest imagery and clearly and convincingly depicts all of the emotion of a horrifying scene. The larger oil on canvas work is not a single portrait, but rather, a panoramic view of a battle scene. The reference to the pale horse is a white horse on which a determined killer, with bow and arrow in hand, is shown escaping the bloody scene. Part of the painting is realistic, and part of it is fictional. The dead white cherub in the foreground appears real, while the crowned demon on a white horse that rides in from heaven appears to be a fantasy created by West.

West's technique is classical. He first drew a large study of what he intended to paint. Then he painted the piece, using the study as a reference but not an absolute unchangeable blueprint. The study is the idea on which his oil on canvas is based. The painter later went in and retouched his painting with white highlights to add separation, and this is somewhat unusual because most painters finish painting their piece before they add the final coat of varnish. West however, retouched this oil on canvas years after it was made.

Also, West used serious colors for his painting. Deep umber for one horse, gray for the background to the clouds, as if the warriors are fighting in a great thunderstorm. The red is not a beautiful wine or crimson but rather, a more orangish pure red, to depict fresh blood. The color of the bloody knee of one man is the same color that West uses for another man's cape which whips in the wind, and even a blond child's robe. The demons in the sky are all brown and gray, resembling the real colors of decayed skeletons, with only bright red eyes to indict that the demons are living. The colors are all warm and natural, there are no artificially bright pinks or purples. The painting contains no

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