Death as a Strangler, 1851
Alfred Rethel; Engraver: Steinbrecherexpand_more
Woodcutexpand_more
The Miscellaneous Works of Art Purchase Fund, 1957expand_more P.12,578
Not on Viewexpand_more
The strains of Death's bony violin have lulled the revelers at a masked ball into a permanent sleep, but the other musicians scramble for the exit. The image is an allegory of a cholera epidemic that struck Paris in 1831. The outbreak killed 20,000 of the city's 650,000 inhabitants. After several years as a highly successful painter of major public commissions, Alfred Rethel's intermittent bouts of mental illness led him to devote himself to the less-pressured activity of printmaking. In his new field he closely studied the work of his German forebears, including Hans Holbein, whose miniature studies of Death appear in this gallery.
Details
- Title
- Death as a Strangler
- Artist Life
- 1816 - 1859
- Role
- Artist
- Accession Number
- P.12,578
- Provenance
- [Emil Hirsch, Munich and New York, until d. 1954]; [By descent, his son-in-law, Hellmuth Wallach, New York, 1954-1957; sold June 14, with "Death as Friend" (P.12,579), for $95, to Mia]
- Curator Approved
This record has been reviewed by our curatorial staff but may be incomplete. These records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about this object, please email collectionsdata@artsmia.org.
Does something look wrong with this image? Let us know
Zoom in on the left to the detail you'd like to save. Click 'Save detail' and wait until the image updates. Right click the image to 'save image as' or copy link, or click the image to open in a new tab.
No Image Available