A Funeral
c. mid-1870s-early 1880s
Medium
charcoal and brush and black and brown ink, with stumping and scratching away
Dimensions
40.1 × 29 cm
Classification
Drawing
Department
Drawings
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Bequest of Muriel Butkin
Accession Number
2008.368
Tags
About this artwork
The macabre subject matter of A Funeral is typical of Jean-Paul Laurens, whose interest in depicting cadavers and coffins earned him the nickname "the painter of the dead." Laurens was also attracted to subjects from church history, and, here, the crosier leaning against the door behind the coffin indicates the deceased was a bishop. Highly finished drawings like this one are rare in Laurens's production. His technique of covering the surface with a variety of media and scratching away for highl...