Tomb with Death Standing 1779 - 1784

Louis Jean Desprez’s “Tomb with Death Standing” (1779-1784) is a dramatic etching that depicts the skeletal figure of Death holding an hourglass in an arched tomb. Two winged lions sit on pedestals at the edge of the composition, flanking Death's pedestal. The work's somber tone and allegorical imagery evoke a sense of mortality and the passage of time. Desprez, a French architect and engraver, was heavily influenced by the Neoclassical style, seen in the architectural details of the tomb and Death's classical drapery. The Art Institute of Chicago, which houses this print, describes the work as a "powerful and evocative image of death" that is "an important example of the Neoclassical style in printmaking.”