Robert Riggs, The Three Horseman

Three skeletal figures in ominous black robes ride horses at a galloping speed. The riders reference the four biblical horsemen from the apocalypse, who represent Death, Famine, War, and Plague. Robert Riggs was inspired by German artist Albrecht Dürer’s 1498 woodcut of the subject. The contrast between the velvety blacks and harsh whites heightens the drama of this macabre scene.

This lithograph was published on January 26, 1935 in The Saturday Evening Post as an advertisement for the pharmaceutical company McKesson and Robbins. Riggs’s work for the pharmaceutical company Smith, Kline, and French are also in Woodmere’s collection (Children’s Ward, Ward Rounds, Accident Ward, and Psychopathic Ward).