Murat is centered in the composition uprightly astride on his horse, while the Turkish army surrounds him in every conceivable contortion of agony. The Turkish general faces Murat, yet he is positioned diagonally right below Murat in an inferior military pose. Compared to Murat, Courbet's Bonjour Monsieur Courbet (1854) finds a very stable balance in the subject of two men saying good-bye to another man. The subject can be divided by the two men on the left and the backpacked man on the right. Stability is emphasized by the strong vertical presence of the men in direct contrast to the flat planed background. The use of balance and tension in Romanticism and Realism is not restricted to it's compositional flow but also to the the painter's use of his palette. The use of color in Romantic paintings is bold visually and figuratively. It's usage is implemented to represent a feeling or an ideal. The presence of a color may not be realistically representative. For .
example, if the blood of a corrupt official is painted, it might be painted black or green, rather than red. There is also a heavy application of paint from the brush. The presence of a blurring smoke is also present in much of Romantic paintings. Blurring smoke has many uses, although it's usual function is to detach and glorify the main subject from the rest of the background. Color in Realism is highly refined. Color defines the object and is representative of colors in real life - a person's blood will usually be red. Lighter brushstrokes are implemented conservatively to represent a true visual representation of reality. .
The use of color representation can be observed in Gros" Murat and Courbet's Bonjour. The victorious Murat is clothed in blue and white upon a white horse, surrounded by the perishing Turkish swirls of orange and red. Anything that is orange or red around Murat is in a pose of impaled misery. All orange and red is contorted to reveal the imposing presence of Murat.