What question did this study set out to answer?

To explore the depiction of death in the paintings of Central and Northern Europe and Belarus during a transformative historical period.

February 8, 2026Open Access

The Representation of Death in the Painting of Central, Northern Europe and Belarus of the Late 19th- Early 20th Centuries

EKEla KalkouskayaEuropean Humanities University

Key Points

To explore the depiction of death in the paintings of Central and Northern Europe and Belarus during a transformative historical period.
Analysis of artistic works from Belarus, Poland, Baltic countries, and Northern Europe.
Focus on symbolic representations of death and thanatological themes.
Examination of unconventional approaches in depicting burial and cemetery scenes.
Increased popularity of death-related subjects in European art during the late 19th century.
Innovative portrayals of death reflecting the societal changes and anxieties of the time.
Diverse artistic interpretations of death across different regions, indicating a shared cultural fascination.

Abstract

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, due to the foreboding of the end of the world, the “shift in eras” and global historical changes, as well as the interest in everything mysterious brought by symbolism, a rise in the popularity of thanatological subjects was observed in European painting. Innovative searches for the personification of the image of Death, as well as unconventional approaches to depicting burials and cemeteries, are found in the works of many European artists at this time. This article analyzes the paintings of artists from Belarus, Poland, the Baltic countries, and Northern Europe, created in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and dedicated to the representation of death as a phenomenon.

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