His Muscles Relaxed by Harold Von Schmidt

Narrative

Like other pieces on this page I cannot comment on the true nature of this story since I do not know what publication this was made for but the gestures of the characters invite us to to tell our own story.  If we were to read the body language of the characters to give us a clue I would start with the character in the back and work clockwise around the picture. The figure in the back doesn't have a look of amusement or pleasure instead he looks disheartened or concerned over the situation as if this did not go the way he hoped it would and his hand in his pocket suggests he was a unwilling participant or spectator.  The other two men with him do not show us their faces but their upright gestures tell us they don't share the same concerns.

Next we move to the guys in the front right. The right guys facial expression tells us that in his eyes he deserved it. He smirks at the man next to him and gestures over his shoulder as if in the middle of cracking a joke. Another hint that the man tied to the post is dead is this is the first guy to fully remove his handkerchief we see so he isn't concerned about anyone seeing his face.  The man next to him though, has the same look on his face as the man in the back. He looks mad as if this situation didn't go the way he hoped it would or that he feels like it went too far.

Next is the man tied to the post. he is the central figure in the painting and has the brightest value here in his gesture shape in the form of an S. His gesture is completely defeated and this gives it contrast to the rest of the gestures but also tells us that their is no sign of life in his body. There is no sign of bodily injury only that his clothes have been ripped from his upper body, and he looks like he is wearing a light colored pants and boots which are not the same as the other men who wear dark pants maybe another hint that he did not know these men.

Next we get the line up of the 4 men on the left. The first 3 guys look like they are in conversation as the center figure holds the whip up for observation. Again we get another figure who does not share the same pleasure as the rest of the gang at the far left end with a figure looking over his shoulder back on the scene.

Value

Interesting enough the man who did the whipping has a different color hat and handkerchief around his mouth then the rest. The purpose of this is to create a focal point for your eyes to move back and forth from the man on the post and the man on the left holding the whip so your mind can make the association between the two. But what would happen if we turned the white handkerchief into blue like the rest and made his hat a different color? How would that change the dynamic of the painting?Above I have done so and if we pay attention to it we see he bleeds into the background and instead our eye has to search longer for the whip.

Here are the value groups in threshold mode and we can see the three main light groups here that tell the basic of our story. We have the man on the right with an expression on his face of how this event did not unfold the way he wanted it to, the dead man tied to the post and the man holding the whip used to beat him. His value shape is brighter then the other men around him to draw attention to him.  We also notice the placement of these light shapes almost ascend and descend like musical notes along the page.

Composition

Our first instinct is to immediately look at the character tied to the post that sits slightly to the right of the page making the placement of the characters asymmetrical.  After that our eye then begins to travel around the painting. We have the two right shapes at a downward slope with the man's hat creating the downward slope, then we have a strong vertical shape that breaks the composition of the painting into two segments in the form of the man tied to the post and the post itself. It anchors them all into the scene and gives a reference point for all of the characters walking away both for narrative and perspective purposes.

Then our eyes descend again to the man on the left who is observing the man holding a whip and investigates it. One thing to note about the man holding the whip is he not only has a white handkerchief and a light colored hat but he is also sitting taller in the picture frame then any of the other characters near him.  We descend again to see one of the bandits relishing in the actions they just took we then see the last character looking back on the scene which makes us look to the right towards the body again and to the man in the back. This keeps our eye coming back to the focal point.

Color
He uses mostly greens and blues throughout the piece in order to depict the night scene and dark purples for the shadows in the piece. The blackest parts of this piece are actually in the mans hair who is tied to the post, in order to keep him from fading into the background and the black used in the pants and shadows of the men along the bottom of the page.

The brightest blue used on any of the faces is actually used on the face all the way in the back. The other faces in the front all use muted blues and whites to render their faces.

He uses a light blue, medium blue and dark purple to render the forms of the men. While using a bluish green for the environment light which is likely coming from the moon above them.

Links:
https://www.rubylane.com/item/688247-254/American-Art-Harold-Von-Schmidt-His
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_von_Schmidt
http://www.bpib.com/illustra2/hvs.htm