The End (tailpiece from McGuire Scrapbook) 1841

Daniel Huntington crafted this tailpiece for a scrapbook with graphite on paper in the 19th century. Here, the phrase "The End" is inscribed on a stone cliff overlooking the sea, beside a solitary figure seated with their back to us. Huntington presents us with a modern vanitas, using the seascape as a memento mori. The cliff, like a gravestone, marks a boundary, a termination. Yet, the sea, with its ceaseless motion, evokes the cyclical nature of existence. Consider similar motifs throughout art history: think of Caspar David Friedrich's wanderers gazing into infinite landscapes, figures confronting the sublime. The lone figure, a symbol of human contemplation before the vast unknown, reappears across time, echoing our collective confrontation with mortality. In this image, Huntington captures the melancholic beauty of endings, a poignant reflection on life’s transient nature, and a profound engagement with our shared subconscious awareness of life's ephemeral passage.