Wikimedia Commons.Įvelyn De Morgan’s androgynous Angel of Death from 1880 is one of three similar paintings which she made of this motif.

Evelyn De Morgan (1855–1919), The Angel of Death (I) (1880), oil on canvas, 123.8 x 93.3 cm, The De Morgan Centre, Guildford, Surrey, England. The maidens are seen dancing together, and picking wild flowers, as the Grim Reaper sleeps on the grass at the lower left, his black cloak wrapped around him and his hand resting on the shaft of his scythe. Pierre Puvis de Chavannes’ Death and the Maiden from 1872 probably links Schubert’s song of that name from 1817 with the recent war, in which so many young French and Prussian people had died, together with contemporary scourges such as tuberculosis, which killed many young adults. Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (1824–1898), Death and the Maiden (1872), oil on canvas, 146 x 107 cm, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA. Gustave Doré’s Death on the Pale Horse accompanies the book of Revelation 6:8, which doesn’t mention scythes of course, and quickly became one of the most popular (perhaps truly iconic) portraits of the Grim Reaper. Gustave Doré (1832–1883), Death on the Pale Horse (1865), print from illustrated edition of the Bible. Pierre Mignard’s lovely Time Clipping Cupid’s Wings (1694) is another allegorical painting featuring Father Time with his scythe.Īlthough Europe continued to be swept by epidemics that killed hundreds of thousands, the Grim Reaper went back into hiding until he became the scourge of the nineteenth century. Pierre Mignard (1612–1695), Time Clipping Cupid’s Wings (1694), oil on canvas, 66 x 54 cm, Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO. Wikimedia Commons.ĭuring the seventeenth century, the scythe was still more likely to appear in the hand of Father Time, as shown in Pieter Thijs’ Time and the Three Fates from about 1665. Pieter Thijs (1624–1677), Time and the Three Fates (c 1665), oil on canvas, 137.5 × 164.5 cm, Museum of Art and History, Geneva. Saturn, holding a sickle in his right hand, marks the end of Henry’s earthly existence in the role of the Divine Reaper, by appointment to the late king. This shows the assassinated king being welcomed into heaven as a victor by the gods Jupiter and Saturn. Rubens included a sickle in his elaborate allegory of The Apotheosis of Henry IV and Homage to Marie de’ Medici, painted in about 1622-25 as part of the Marie de’ Medici Cycle. Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), The Apotheosis of Henry IV and Homage to Marie de’ Medici (Marie de’ Medici Cycle) (c 1622-25), oil on canvas, 394 x 727 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris. The hourglass is another classical attribute of time rather than death. This version is thought to have been painted in 1509-11, and depicts death as a decomposing corpse holding an hourglass high above his beautiful victim. One of the first well-known painters to show the everyday tragedy of early death is Hans Baldung, a contemporary of Hieronymus Bosch. Image by Dguendel, via Wikimedia Commons. Hans Baldung (c 1484–1545), Death and the Maiden (date not known), media and dimensions not known, Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Vienna, Austria. Wikimedia Commons.Īmong the earliest conventional images of the Grim Reaper is Jean Fouquet’s in this page of the Veauce Hours from about 1460. Jean Fouquet (c 1420–1478), untitled page in the Veauce Hours (c 1460), further details not known. In painting, it’s supposed that the figure of the Grim Reaper first appeared in the fourteenth century, during the epidemics that raged across Europe at that time. Instead, the scythe or sickle was an attribute of gods of time, including Saturn, through confusion with the Titan Cronus or Cronos, none of whom had anything to do with death, but centred on a truly ancient myth involving the castration of Uranus. There’s considerable doubt over its classical origins, as his distinctive scythe wasn’t associated with Thanatos, the Greek god of death. The English phrase the Grim Reaper refers to the personification of death, and is one of relatively few instances of an image description coining a new phrase.

Grim reaper art