Dance of Death in Seven Tempos (Dood - Dans in Zeven Tempos)
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.
Artwork Details
- Title: Dance of Death in Seven Tempos (Dood - Dans in Zeven Tempos)
- Artist: Nicolas Mathieu Eekman (Belgian, Brussels 1889–1973 Paris)
- Date: 1924
- Medium: Frieze of seven woodcuts plus title printed on Toshi paper with a woodcut cover printed on thick oatmeal paper
- Dimensions: Cover sheet: 14 3/4 × 7 3/8 in. (37.5 × 18.7 cm)
Frieze: 12 1/2 in. × 53 in. (31.8 × 134.6 cm) - Classification: Prints
- Credit Line: Purchase, PECO Foundation Gift, 2022
- Object Number: 2022.16
- Rights and Reproduction: © 2025 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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