Tragic Prelude is a mural painted by Kansan John Steuart Curry for the Kansas State Capitol building in Topeka, Kansas. It is located on the east side of the second floor rotunda. On the north wall it depicts abolitionist Kansan John Brown with a Bible in one hand, on which the Greek letters alpha and omega of Apocalypse 1:8 can be seen. In his other hand he holds a rifle or "Beecher's Bible". He is in front of Union and Confederate soldiers, living and dead, with a whirlwind and a prairie fire approaching. Emigrants with covered wagons travel from east to west.
