Memento Mori, vanitas, mortality — death is one of the most pervasive themes in art history.
While many artworks celebrate afterlives in heaven or hell, death is most often referenced as grim reminder of numbered days, and a powerful motivator to live well while you can. Every culture has rituals surrounding death, appearing in artwork as icons and colors.
Hourglasses and wilted flowers for the Dutch, the Cuckoo bird in Japan, the Totenkopf in Germany.
A Funeral. Anna Ancher, 1891
After the Storm. Sarah Bernhardt, 1876
Ahasuerus at the End of the World. Adolf Hirémy-Hirschl, 1888
Akashi Gidayū’s Death Poem. Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, 1890
Camille Monet on her Deathbed. Claude Monet, 1879
Cleopatra. Giampietrino, 1524-1526
Cleopatra Testing Poisons on Condemned Prisoners. Alexandre Cabanel, 1887
Crucifixion and Last Judgement. Jan Van Eyck, 1430-1440
Death and Life. Gustav Klimt, 1910-1915
Death and the Conquistador. Aubrey Williams, 1959
Death and the Maiden. Marianne Stokes, 1908
Death of Clytaemnestra. Stanley William Hayter, 1949
Death of Constantine. 1623-1625
Death of the Horseman or Brandemart Crying. Émile Bernard, 1892
Descent from the Cross. Rembrandt van Rijn, 1633
Disk of Mictlantecuhtli. 1 CE-600 CE
Dying Gaul.
Executions on the Third of May. Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, 1814
Funeral and the Crescent. Ibrahim El-Salahi, 1963
Funerary Portrait of Jacques Damala. Sarah Bernhardt, 1889
Ghosts of the Forest. Marsden Hartley, 1938
Gold Marilyn Monroe. Andy Warhol, 1962
Grave Circle A (Mycenae). 1600 BCE-1550 BCE
Grave Circle B (Mycenae) 1675 BCE-1550 BCE
Grave Mask from Grave Circle A. 1600 BCE-1500 BCE
Guernica. Pablo Picasso, 1937
Hope 1. Gustav Klimt, 1903
In Memoriam Karl Liebknecht. Käthe Kollwitz, 1920
Iris in a Vase. Marie Bracquemond, 1886
Lace Glove. Hippolyte Bayard, 1843-1846
Lady of Baza. 350 BCE
Laocoön. El Greco, 1604-1614
Laocoön and His Sons. 200 BCE
Massacre of the Innocents. Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1565-1567
Mummy with an Inserted Panel Portrait of a Youth. 80 CE-100 CE
The town was on fire, the quarter where the poor Jews lived. They carried the bed and the mattress, the mother and the babe at her feet, to a safe place at the other end of town. But, first of all, I was born dead.
My Life - Marc Chagall Autobiography: Chapter 1. Marc Chagall, 1922
Night Ferdinand Hodler, 1890
Ophelia. John Everett Millais, 1851-1852
Ophelia. Sarah Bernhardt, 1880
Pentre Ifan Dolmen. 3500 BCE
Red Hill and Bones. Georgia O'Keeffe, 1941
Ria Munk on her Deathbed. Gustav Klimt, 1912
Sarcophagus of Seianti Hanunia Tlesnasa. 140 BCE
Seaside Cemetery. Adolf Hirémy-Hirschl, 1897
Self-Portrait as Drowned Man. Hippolyte Bayard, 1840
Skeletons Fighting over a Hanged Man. James Ensor, 1891
Souls on the Banks of the Acheron. Adolf Hirémy-Hirschl, 1898
Still Life with Sparrow Hawk, Fowl, Porcelain and Shells. Clara Peeters, 1611
The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp. Rembrandt van Rijn, 1632
The Angel of Death. Evelyn De Morgan, 1881
The Assassination. James Ensor, 1890
The Bad Doctors. James Ensor, 1892
I am one of those gods, the Powers who effect the triumph of Osiris over his adversaries on the day of the Weighing of the Words : I am thy kinsman, Osiris.
The Book of the Dead. 1550 BCE
The Book of the Dead. 1550 BCE
