The Golden Mane

About this work

Darkness carries most of this picture, and that is what makes the light so effective. The black coat merges with the black background at its edges, so the head seems to emerge only where the side light falls, along the cheek and the long line of the nose. The dark eye sits at the heart of the composition, calm and watchful, and from there the gaze is led upwards into the mane. Pale gold-blond strands blow across the forehead and stream away to the right, the only warm colour in a picture otherwise made of black and charcoal. The finish is painterly yet almost photographic, so up close you can follow single hairs and soft gradations of tone across the face; from across the room only the bright mane and the gleam of the head remain, a quiet, dramatic presence.

That large dark eye is built for watching a wide world. Horses have some of the largest eyes of any land mammal, and because the eyes sit on the sides of the head, each one covers a broad arc of its own; together they take in close to 350 degrees, with blind spots only directly in front of the nose and directly behind. Binocular vision, where the two fields overlap to judge distance, is limited to a fairly narrow zone ahead. Horses also see well in dim light, though their eyes adjust more slowly than ours when the light changes suddenly. It is one reason riders are taught to approach a horse from the side and to speak to it first, rather than appearing from straight behind.

With The White Stallion it forms a striking contrast of dark and pale horses, and next to Panther in the Golden Palms it becomes part of a black-and-gold animal wall. Charcoal, ink blue, forest green or deep plum walls let the black ground melt away, so the head appears to float; on white walls it reads more like a framed photograph. A black or dark bronze frame without a mat gives the most modern look, while a thin gold frame warms it up. Light it from one side to echo the light in the picture. Printed from the 7168 × 10752 px file, it stays sharp to about 60 × 90 cm, ideal for a statement wall. A Frame TV version with a gallery mat is also included.