Dance of Death in Seven Tempos (Dood - Dans in Zeven Tempos)

Nicolas Mathieu Eekman

1924 · Frieze of seven woodcuts plus title printed on Toshi paper with a woodcut cover printed on thick oatmeal paper · Drawings and Prints

The theme of the Dance of Death goes back centuries; most famously Hans Holbein in the 16th century depicted people of different professions and statuses surprised by the skeletal figure of death and followed by early twentieth-century artists like Marcel Roux and Lovis Corinth, Here Eekman takes a different approach: central large tree extends its branches like deathly hands that reach for the figures in the seven plates of Eekman's Dance of Death, a large accordion-folded frieze printed on deicate Toshi paper. In each scene, a ragged bird hovers around the figures who range from musicians and farmers to a pair of fat and thin men. Eekman was a Belgian expressionist who in 1920 moved to Paris where he remained for the rest of his life.

Artist

Nicolas Mathieu Eekman

Date

1924

Medium

Frieze of seven woodcuts plus title printed on Toshi paper with a woodcut cover printed on thick oatmeal paper

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Purchase, Peco Foundation, 2022