Chicago artist Herman Menzel drew inspiration from the everyday subjects around him, from city dwellers and industrial scenes to fishermen and rural landscapes. In The White Horse, he employed undulating forms and flat areas of color, with a stylized tree silhouetted against an expansive red mountain and a churning sky of blue and violet. Here, the artist combined his observations of a horse from an Illinois farm with those of a visit in 1929 to the mountainous terrain of Woodstock, New York. Menzel’s resulting composition is expressive and moody, quiet and romantic.