Genre
Melancholic
Melancholy is the weather of loss. It gathers in ruins overgrown with ivy, in the guttering candle and the wilting flower, in the downcast gaze — a mood the Romantics prized as the soul’s truest register, where beauty and sadness are not opposites but the same note held.
Key artists
Works
Memorial painting
Lobster Fishermen
Breton Fishermen and Their Families
The Return of the Cattle
Beggars by a Door
Docks on Sunday
Harem Scene
The Sultan's Tiger
Tragedy of the Sea
The Peddler
A Footman Sleeping
The Burning of Sodom
The Pont Neuf
Paris Night
To the Memory of the Benevolent Howard
A Peasant Woman Picking Fleas off a Dog
The North Cape by Moonlight
Holy Mountain IV
Women Carrying Faggots
One Third of a Nation
Recess of the Court
Ruin by the Sea
Springtime in Hals, Jutland
Tree
Fragmentary Scene of Foreigners, Tomb of Senenmut
Dormition of the Virgin Relief
Castles in Spain (Chateaux en Espagne)
Weary Wayfarers
The Great Windmill and the Rainbow
The Laundresses
Grey and Silver: Chelsea Wharf
Maria
Study of a Model
Nearing the Issue at the Cockpit
The Levite at Gibeah
Capriccio of a Harbor
The Recovery of Bahía de Todos los Santos
From the Old Kristiania
Doña Joanna the Mad
Último sueño de una virgen
Hearing her declaration of love, Ayaz falls at the feet of Mahmuda at the holy shrine. The scene is witnessed by Salim, Ayaz’s friend, and a maid, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Thirty-third Night
Woman Meditating
The Pie Wagon
Destitute Dead Mother holding her sleeping Child in Winter
Antiochus and Stratonice
Venetian Lagoon
Bag
Evening. Death and the Old Woman
Willem I (1533-84), genaamd de Zwijger, prins van Oranje, op zijn ziekbed
1886
Two Arab Women
Rahbek ved sin hustrus dødsleje
Alexander den Store på sygelejet
Winter night in Ukraine
Catherine Jagiellon with her son Sigismund imprisoned in the Gripshom Castle (sketch)
Arlésiennes (Mistral)
Jagdbeute
El Expolio de Cristo
Cervantes en sus últimos días escribe la dedicatoria del Quijote al conde de Lemos
Inválido del arte
el Último Beso
Un soir de grève
Cinder clearance
La oración
Cisneros y los Grandes
Últimos momentos de Fernando IV el Emplazado
The Embarkation of James the Greater’s Body at Jaffa
Stadtholder Prince Maurice Lying in State
The Pithead
Skeletons fighting over a Hanged Man
Winter Scene on the Ice with Wood Gatherers
At Sundown
Winter scene
River view by moonlight
The Rooks Have Returned
A Vocation
Winter Evening in Ribe, Jutland
St. Peter's Church, Copenhagen
Moonlit View of Stockholm
A Lady Reading
Noah: The Eve of the Deluge
The young man of Baghdad reunited with his slave-girl, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Forty-eighth Night
Despair
Breton Women in Mourning
Man at the Press
Santa Catalina transportada por los ángeles
Los dos sueños
Lope de Vega en el cementerio
María Cristina de Habsburgo-Lorena
The Lovers of Teruel
¡A la guerra!
Paisaje con la crucifixión de San Pedro
Vieja con una sonaja
Antonio Pérez recibiendo a su familia después del tormento
Pescadores junto a un puerto
Vieja bebedora
La vuelta del entierro
El cadáver de Álvarez de Castro
Cleopatra
Paisaje con un ermitaño
The Gladiators
Sketch on the Subject of the Trinity Beneath the Oak of Mambre
The Death of Masaccio
Parting of Abelard and Heloise
Tomb of Cecilia Metella
Paris Opera at night
Strandgezicht met kaapstanders
Schilderij met herbergscène
Man with Wench
A lioness with her cubs near a dead black man called 'Nemesis'
Interior of a Peasant Hut
Mother and Child in a Garden
Refugees
On Country Roads and Fields
'Alone in the World'
Monk Meditating near a Ruin by Moonlight
Shepherd boy
City Walls in Winter
Ploughing Farmer
Lone Bay
The Casino
In the barn
The Barricade (La barricade)
The Abandoned Daughters of the Lord High Constable, Stig Andersen Hvide
Snow-Clearing
An Egyptian Pot Seller at Gizeh
Cat and dead fowl
Job and His Friends
Paris med Tour St. Jacques og Notre Dame. Aftenstemning
Winter Scenery
Dead Wildfowl
Fra en præstegård
Vinterdag i Lyngby
Carcase of an Ox. Rome
A Dutch Winter Scenery
A Calf's Carcase in a Kitchen
Paolo and Francesca
Taterkvinde med sit barn på heden
The Interior of a Village. Card Players
Franske kyrasserer, som angriber en russisk forpost
Beggars outside S. Giuliano, near Pompeii. 1904-05
A Square in Ariccia, Italy. After Sunset
Heste ved stranden
En falkejagt
Nattestemning med ildebrande i St-Vast-là-haut nær Valenciennes.
Kronborg set fra sydøst
The Ramparts of Christianshavn. Spring
The Sawmill of Tistedal
Winter Scenery
Ribe Cathedral
Lady Macbeth. Study
People outside a Church. Harboøre, Jutland
En tilgivelse
Et vinterlandskab
A Dead Hare
Shrimpers
The Testament of Eudamidas
Frue Kirkes brand
The victory of faith
Forår i en kløft
Monument at a Harbour
En gammel kone på vej til kirke
En gammel kone "Bette Dorte" på heden
Solopgang over en kystby
A Smoker
The Roman Dwarf Francesco Ravai, called Bajocco
A View from S. Onofrio on Monte Gianicolo, Rome
Peasants outside the Church on a Christmas Morning
Landskab med ruiner
Dead Game
Sokrates' død
Time the Physician
The old painter
The Death of Belisarius' Wife
Schlafende Frau
Totes Federwild
Dead hare
Stehender Hund mit Jagdbeute
Heimkehr der Herde
Architekturbild mit zwei Bettlern, Soldat und Hund (Kopie nach)
Seestück mit Christus
Bildnis eines Bauern
Badende Mädchen in einer Felsgrotte
Die Fourage
Hunting prey guarded by dogs
Baumlose Gegend mit Haus
Winterlandschaft
Drosseln an einem Brett aufgehängt
Hafenszene
Der weinende Philosoph (Heraklit) (Schule)
Jagdstilleben
Pantry (Alte Pinakothek)
Triptych of the Mine
Hammerfest. Northern lights
St Agatha in her cell
La muerte de San Francisco
Mensaje de Carlos I al cardenal Cisneros (1517)
Galeotes
La vidente
A fortified gate
Frequently asked questions
What is Melancholic?
Melancholic is a mood in painting. Melancholy is the weather of loss.
How many Melancholic works does Artifact World Gallery have?
Artifact World Gallery holds 3,452 public-domain Melancholic works, all free to view and download.
Who are the key Melancholic artists?
Key Melancholic artists in the collection include Jean Baptiste Camille Corot, Édouard Manet and Arnold Böcklin.