Vom Tode, Max Klinger, 1889

In on death, part one, a series of ten etchings, the symbolist klinger envisioned the ephemeral nature of life and the suddenness of death, themes that prompted one contemporary critic to call the portfolio a modern "dance of death. " in night, the first in the series, a man sits on a bench in an enclosed garden. A moonbeam breaks through the clouds over the sea, and on the path to the right is a lily with a fluttering butterfly. The landscape seems an extension of the figure’s melancholy thoughts, a landscape of the mind. Date: 1889. Place of creation: Germany, late 19th century. Medium: etching print and aquatint. Collection: Cleveland Museum of Art. Max Klinger - Vom Tode - 1933.126 - Cleveland Museum of Art