La Mort et Le Bucheron (Death and the Woodcutter)

Alphonse Legros

c. 1880-81

Drawing in pen and brown ink over pencil on paper

, 13 ⅛ x 9 &frac¾; inches (33.4 x 24.7 cm).

Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, accession no. 1943.3.5370.

This drawing is a study for the fourth plate Legros did of his etching Death and the Woodcutter. It shows the elderly terrified woodcutter seated cowering on the ground while trying to explain to Death why he had sent for her. Death leans nonchalantly on a stone barrier listening to the woodcutter.