Dance of Death: Death the Strangler

1850

From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art

Impressionism Realism Early 19th Century Allegory

Dominant colour

Dance of Death: Death the Strangler is a 1850 by Alfred Rethel, a Impressionism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.

Who painted this?: Alfred Rethel
When & what style?: 1850 · Impressionism
Where can I see it?: Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

In this dark print a skeletal figure in black clutches a man’s throat on a dance floor. Gas lamps flicker as party guests freeze. A woman drops her fan in shock. Rethel shows death as a real threat, not a joke. The scene comes from a 1831 Paris ball where cholera killed dozens. Heavy shadows make the moment feel sudden and heavy. This reminds me of how Dürer drew death in his Apocalypse series. Check out Albrecht Dürer’s Apocalypse: The Four Horsemen at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

The story of this work

Overview

Death the Strangler refers to an event of some twenty years earlier in Paris, as the caption explains: "The first outbreak of cholera at a masked ball in Paris in 1831." Rethel was influenced by 16th-century images of death, such as Hans Holbein's Dance of Death (on view in gallery 109). Here, the artist's interpretation of death as an overwhelmingly menacing force derives from Albrecht Dürer, whose Apocalypse: The Four Horsemen (also on view in gallery 109) depicts death as a destructive power sweeping away everything in its path.

Read the full account in the museum source.