Carlos Schwabe’s “The Death of the Gravedigger”

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German artist and printmaker Carlos Schwabe was born on July 21, 1866, in Altona. He moved to Paris after he has finished his study in Geneva. In Paris, he became familiar with some Symbolist artists. He became well-known and he was much in the requisition. He illustrated many famous novels of that time. His paintings usually reveal mythological themes. Symbolists, with who he became acquainted, affected him a lot. His paintings were rather experimental and specific. They were reflecting a symbolistic idealism. But after 1900, scenes in his works became more conspicuous and extensional. The most important feature of his paintings was images of women. They often were revealing scenes of suffering, tragedy, and death. The other paintings with women, in contrast, were representing creativity, exhortation and guidance.

“The death of a close friend in 1894, when Schwabe was 28 years old, engendered his interest in representing death” (“Carlos Schwabe” n.p.). Many of the images of angels and virgins Carlos drew from his wife. He also drew the image of “Death” in his masterpiece painting The Death of the Grave-Digger from her. The painting displays a graveyard covered with snow. The woman angel is dressed in black and has dark blue wings. She landed like a mystic crow on the brink of the grave. There is an old man inside the grave, he is a grave-digger. The woman angel holds a green light in her hand. There is a reflection of this light on her chest. This light most likely represents old man’s soul. The angel’s face is cold, bleak and sorrowful.

She is carrying the mask of indifference and rigor, with which she passes judgment. Despite the obvious absence of death attributes, such as black overall with deep hood and scythe, the image of death is brightly represented in the picture. As it should be among the Symbolists, signs are hidden: the angel is wearing a long black dress and black hoop, the shape of her dark wings reminds the death’s scythe. The old man is watching right into the angel’s eyes and he is about to drop his shovel and fall to the grave, which he was digging for someone else. His right arm is almost squeezing his heart, stretching to hold the leaking life. But it is too late, his soul belongs to him no more. Obviously, the death came suddenly. He looks shocked and fascinated by her grandeur and beauty at the same time. The woman angel is pointing in the sky, which means that the old man is going to heaven. But with her eyes, she is looking down to the grave.

The symbolic metaphorical manner is used to show the main subject in Schwabe’s latest works, the subject of death (Neginsky n.p.). The techniques that are used in the painting are watercolor, pencil and gouache. Using the gouache Schwabe makes a bright contrast of the black angel and white cemetery covered with snow. One of the most valuable properties of gouache – a good covering ability, so that the dark areas can be painted over with light colors and vice versa (“Painting with Gouache” n.p.). A thick layer of gouache looks like an oil painting. It has a reach and saturated color, which fits perfectly to express sadness, grief, doom and death, as well as snow and headstones. It is useful to create a good contrast, which we can see in this painting.

The bodies of the woman angel and the old grave-digger are represented in an idealistic manner in ordinary proportions of the human body. Schwabe wanted to emphasize special attention on them. He wanted to draw attention to dramatic poses of characters, on their eyes, looks, movements and gestures. These two figures have great importance. Their poses clearly reveal their feelings: the agony of the old man and the calmness and serenity of the black angel. Symbolism is connected with an idealistic world outlook, with the exoneration of individualism and complete personal liberty. Symbolism claims that art is much higher than trivial reality. We can clearly see this in The Death of the Grave-Digger. The theme of the painting is far from the humble scenes of everyday life. The death is presented by a beautiful but cold angel, who is taking the old man’s soul. The man looks emaciated, almost empty, pale and very old.

The figures of the woman angel and the old man standing inside the grave are in the foreground. The main focus of the painting is on them. It means that they are the main subject of the painting. The composition is unified. The figures of angel and grave-digger are contrasted to the outlook of the snow-covered graveyard with headstones. The composition is non-symmetrical but the geometry of the objects is ordinary. The graveyard is empty and lonely. There is no one there except for the two main characters. There is a lot of free space in this picture. The first thing that catches the viewer’s attention is a black angel. The artist obtains it by contrasting her black shape with the white snow of the cemetery.

The space in the painting is three-dimensional. The composition is rather deep because it has spaciousness and many little details, like grave headstones, grass, willow branches, etc. It has a one-point perspective. On the forefront, there are images of main characters, concealed with willow branches. In the background, we can see the empty snow-covered cemetery, which creates a sad and gloomy atmosphere.

The brushstrokes are painterly and tight, without unnecessary emphasis. Typical preferences in painting for Symbolists are described as follows: “Their almost universal preference for broad strokes of unmodulated color and flat, often abstract forms” (“Symbolism” n.p.). The colors play a great role in the painting. There are not many of them. Dominant colors are black and white. They represent a constant contradiction of life and death, hope and despair, grief and serenity. Such a combination creates a cold and captivating atmosphere. With the help of this contrast, Schwabe creates drama and reveals a gloomy gothic romanticism. There is a consistent source of light in the background. It seems that the sun is about to set down. It creates a contrast with a black angel and represents a symbol of life that is about to end. There are no shadows in the painting and the snow around stays perfectly white.

The contrast in painting is not only in colors and light. The feelings and emotions of the old man at the forefront are also contrasted with the general serenity and silence of the cemetery. The willow branches are also represented sadness. It seems like the willow is the only thing that will be deploring the old grave-digger. It also casts a sense of hopelessness. The whole painting is a big contrast of colors, symbols, hidden meanings and emotions.

Despite the obvious absence of death attributes and signs, the main theme of the painting is dead. It is built on contrasts and symbolic details that are typical of Symbolism. The Death of the Grave-Digger is a great and deep painting that reveals rather a decadent mood. Interesting fact that despite Schwabe having made a lot of paintings and left a big art heritage, he became famous mostly due to painting The Death of the Grave-Digger.

Works Cited

Carlos Schwabe 2010. Web. n.d.

Ippolito, Frank “Painting with Gouache”. GNSI Journal of Natural Science Illustrators 2.1 (1993): 36. Web.

Neginsky, Rosina. Symbolism, Its Origins and Its Consequences, Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010. Print.

Symbolism 2013. Web. n.d.

Symbolism and The death of the Grave-Digger 2011. Web.

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Carlos Schwabe’s “The Death of the Gravedigger”

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