Death at the Lake

The figure of Death, as seen here, permeated Max Klinger’s works throughout his career, ranging from the macabre to the satirical. This drawing takes a darkly humorous spin, with the skeletal specter leaning on his scythe as he urinates into a lake. The grotesque figure’s presence is made all the more jarring by the lush landscape, with full trees and clear water, suggesting both the contamination of the pristine natural world and the omnipresence of death.

With this image, Klinger tapped into the darker regions of human consciousness, which was in line with the more generalized fixation on death among German artists, poets, and psychologists in the late 19th century. Klinger often turned to drawing and printmaking to explore uncanny and imaginary works such as this.