Klinger To the Beautiful in Nature (Vom Tode II, plate 12) 1889 {1891} NGV [ET]

Klinger, Max (1857-1920; German)
To the Beautiful in Nature (An die Schönheit) [Vom Tode II, plate 12] 1890
Engraving and etching, 37.5 × 27.8 cm (image), 41.4 × 32.1 cm (plate), 61.6 × 45.6 cm (sheet)
Purchased, 1891 (advice of Hubert von Herkomer)
National Gallery of Victoria (p.188.1-1)

Here, Death is equated with mystical union with the world, an archetypically late 19^th century notion (compare Nietzsche, Mahler etc.). Irena Zdanowicz suggests the influence of this print on local printmaker Lionel Lindsay.

Refs.

AR 1891, p.26; NGV 1894, p.70 (III.Vestibule, no.20); NGV 1905, p.108 (IV.Vestibule, no.27) [£7]

Identified in the NGV catalogue as the 2^nd of 4 states (citing Singer); see also Zdanowicz “Herkomer” (1993)