Death and the Young Mother, from Revue Fantaisiste
1861
Medium
Etching and roulette on cream China paper laid down on white wove paper
Dimensions
Image/chine: 13.7 × 8.8 cm (5 7/16 × 3 1/2 in.); Plate: 17 × 12.3 cm (6 3/4 × 4 7/8 in.); Sheet: 22 × 15.9 cm (8 11/16 × 6 5/16 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
8076
Art Historical Context
In the haunting etching *Death and the Young Mother created by French artist Rodolphe Bresdin in1861 for the short satirical periodical *Revue Fantais*, we encounter a poignant allegory of mortality. Bresdin, a visionary printmaker admired by Odilon Redon and Charles Baudelaire, crafted intricate, dreamlike scenes blending Romantic fantasy with moral depth. This work, part of a series of illustrations for the revue—a bold publication challenging Second Empire conventions—captures the tension between life's fragility and inevitable fate, reflecting 19th-century preoccupations with death amid so...
About the Artist
Rodolphe Bresdin · 1822–1885
Rodolphe Bresdin (1822–1885) was a visionary French draughtsman, engraver, and lithographer whose fantastical imagery captured the empathy of rural poverty and the wild exuberance of the imagination. Born on August 12, 1822, in Montrelais near Le Fresne-sur-Loire in Brittany, he grew up in the Breton countryside amid its bardic folklore traditions before a family dispute left him homeless in Paris...