Death of the Laureate 1957

Leonard Baskin made this image, *Death of the Laureate*, as an artist's proof. It’s all inky and graphic and seems to have been printed by hand. I like to think about what might have been on Baskin’s mind when he made it; to me, it looks like he felt for this laureate. The network of dark lines is almost like a dense fog or a web, and there are very few tonal variations. It gives the laureate a really tragic feeling! Look at the position of the arms, for instance, which hide the face. I wonder if Baskin felt like he was struggling with the expectations of others, or the pressures of fame. Baskin was a sculptor, printer, illustrator, and writer, known for his humanist and figurative art, often depicting themes of mortality, mythology, and the human condition. I get a sense of that here; but for Baskin, it's not just about the end, it's also about the human! We never really know the state of mind of an artist when they are in the act of creation, but through looking at the image, and trying to read it, we can begin to understand something of the artist's intention.