The lightning

Description of the artwork

Depicting a solitary horse in a landscape, startled by a flash of lightning, our large canvas by James Ward unfolds a scene of rare intensity, characteristic of English Romantic sensibility. Here, the animal—far from being merely a subject of observation or a symbol of prestige—appears to become the protagonist of a deeper drama.

At the center of the composition, a piebald horse with a striking coat stands out against a stormy sky. It moves across rugged ground, captured in a suspended motion: its right foreleg raised, neck stretched forward, eye widened with fear, and pale mane swept by the wind. Every muscle is tense; every line of the body expresses the instinct to flee from the celestial threat.

To the left, in the distance, lightning streaks across the horizon in two angular, almost calligraphic lines that directly echo those of the horse’s legs. This flash of light only briefly illuminates the sky laden with dark clouds, yet it is enough to transform the atmosphere into a scene of imminent catastrophe. The cold, harsh lateral light contrasts with the warm tones of the horse’s chestnut-and-white coat, causing the pictorial surface to vibrate.

As if to emphasize the animal’s isolation, the strip of rocky ground—treated with freer, darker brushstrokes—contrasts with the meticulous rendering of the horse’s anatomy. Renowned for his profound knowledge of animals, Ward relied on numerous drawings made from life to sculpt the muscular masses, accentuating the shoulder, the croup, and the tension of the hocks. This graphic corpus of studies formed a repertory of forms from which the artist continually drew in order to capture the natural attitudes of his horses, at times reusing them in a serial practice that appears strikingly modern.

The iconography of a horse frightened by lightning runs throughout the Romantic period and appears in France in the works of Géricault, Delacroix, and Carle Vernet. Yet James Ward offers a more psychological and original interpretation. Although he grants his horse an almost heroic monumentality, he seems to reveal its hypersensitivity, exploiting the tension between its wild power and its timid, vulnerable nature—a specific paradox that constitutes the very grandeur of the equestrian art. No rider, no human presence comes to control the animal or temper the violence of the moment. This absence reinforces the idea of a direct confrontation, face to face, between the creature and the forces of nature.

Thus, through the tension of movement, the drama of the storm-laden sky, and the anxious nobility of the horse, James Ward succeeds in elevating an animal subject to the level of a true Romantic poem, where physical robustness meets sublime terror.

Origin

Former Arthur Ackermann and Son collection - Gallery of fine art, London - circa 1800

Literature

Hélène Delalex and Laurent Salomé (eds.), exhibition catalogue Cheval en majesté, au cœur d'une civilisation (Château de Versailles, 2 July – 3 November 2024), Paris, Lienart Éditions, 2024, pp. 481–487, reproduced on p. 483.