The Vision of the White Horse

This Vision of the White Horse, around 1798, at the Tate, depicts a scene from the Book of Revelation—the first of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. De Loutherbourg's late career turn toward visionary subjects reflected broader European Romantic interest in the sublime and the apocalyptic. De Loutherbourg's theatrical oil technique deployed dramatic chiaroscuro and vivid atmospheric effects—glowing furnace light, moonlight on water, storm-raked sky—that he had developed through his work...

The pale horse and its rider emerge from swirling supernatural light against a dark, tumultuous background. De Loutherbourg's theatrical handling of light and color creates a genuinely terrifying vision of apocalyptic power.