Death and the Maiden (La Jeune Fille et la Mort) by Marianne Stokes (1855-1927). c.1908. 95 cm (37.4 in) x 135 cm (53.1 in) Collection: Musée d'Orsay, accession number RF 1978 36, bought in 1978. © Musée d’Orsay, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Patrice Schmidt. Kindly made available under the terms of the Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 France (CC BY-SA 2.0 FR).
In this intriguing painting, black-robed Death comes in female shape to the bed of a young woman. She spreads out one of her wings protectively, and holds up her hand as if in salutation, or even to allay the young woman's evident fear. From her other hand dangles is a lantern, shedding a little light. The young woman herself looks alarmed and clutches her red bedcover to her. As suggested by the pink blossoms in the vase on the low bedside cabinet, she is still in the springtime of life, and much too young to die. But she has, of course, taken off her pearl necklace, which lies beside the vase, and some of those pink blossoms have already been shed. This is an allegory of a woman's life liable to be cut short, a prospect which, unusually, death itself seems to regret. Marianne Stokes was sympathetic to the women's cause, and that sympathy seems to shine through here. — Jacqueline Banerjee
Bibliography
La Jeune Fille et la Morte. Art UK. Web. 5 June 2023.
Created 4 June 2023