Death and the woodcutter
- Artist
- Jean-Francois Millet
- Date
- 1859
- Style
- Realism
- Genre
- Mythological painting
- Location
- Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek
The painting 'Death and the Woodcutter' is a prime example of Realism, depicted with both somber and stark detail by the French artist Jean-François Millet. It portrays a fatigued woodcutter, his axe lying idly by his side, as he encounters Death embodied in the form of a skeletal figure covered in a bleak shroud. To some degree, the picture also incorporates elements of Mythological painting, as it personifies Death in a narrative scene reminiscent of folk tales and legends. Housed in the Musée d'Orsay, this work is a stark reminder of man’s mortality and the unforgiving grind of daily life throughout history.
Related artworks
- The Death of Agag by Gustave Dore
- The Death of the Virgin by Pieter Bruegel the Elder
- Death of Virginia, Study by Nikolai Ge
- Death of Baldwin I the Latin King of Jerusalem by Gustave Dore
- Death of whore by Hieronymus Bosch
- Death and the Miser (detail) by Hieronymus Bosch
- Death of the Inquisitor Pedro de Arbués by Bartolome Esteban Murillo
- St. Francis and brother Leo meditating on death by El Greco
- The Death of the Deer by Gustave Courbet
- The Death of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram by Gustave Dore