Albert Pinkham Ryder (American, 1847–1917)
The Race Track (Death on a Pale Horse)
c. 1896–1908
Albert Pinkham Ryder's 'The Race Track' (also known as 'Death on a Pale Horse', late 1890s) depicts a solitary skeletal rider — Death from the Book of Revelation — circling a dark, empty racetrack on a pale horse. Inspired, according to Ryder, by a friend who committed suicide after a ruinous bet, the painting's heavily layered glazes and dreamlike metaphor produced one of the most idiosyncratic American Symbolist masterpieces. It is a cornerstone of the Cleveland Museum of Art's American galleries.
Exhibition Venue
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