Death on the Pale Horse
West's final significant piece, Death on a Pale Horse, is a dynamic and violent scene, which contrasts the measured subjects of his previous works. Completed three years prior to his death, the painting's vastness, over twenty-five feet wide and fourteen-feet high, emphasizes its subject matter's power. Death, descending on earth on a white horse with clenched fists holding lightning bolts, is surrounded by dragon-like creatures with fiery eyes, leaving carnage beneath his horse's hooves. The spiraling composition also features cowering strong men, a woman, and a baby lying dead, with ghostly figures floating around the canvas. West's classical dress and armor, influenced by Peter Paul Rubens and Greek and Roman roots, highlight his emphasis on emotion rather than coherent storytelling. The painting is an important precursor to artists such as Théodore Géricault and Eugène Delacroix, according to art historian Jules Prown. Art critic Thomas Hine remarked in 2018 that the painting is "energetic and weird and barely coherent," besotted with apocalypse, and a wide-screen search for a cosmic conclusion, making West possibly the first American artist.
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