Albert Pinkham Ryder, The Race Track (Death on a Pale Horse)

Cleveland Museum of Art

Date: c. 1895
Technique: Oil on canvas, 70.5 x 89.2 cm

Ryder wrote that this painting was inspired by a waiter whom he knew in his brother's hotel, The Albert, who committed suicide after he lost his life's savings on the race track.

This fact formed a cloud over my mind that I could not throw off, and 'The Race Track' is the result.

The race was probably in 1888; the first known record of the painting was circa 1895. Ryder continued to work on it until about 1910.

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