Caveau No. 6

 

Pierre Joseph Witdoeck

  1803 - 1889 (biography)

c. 1830  

hand-colored lithograph 

9 x 9 3/4" image 

engraved in plate, lower left 

unstated 

"P.J. Witdoeck del." inscribed lower left; "Lith. Belge de H. Delpierre" inscribed, lower center; "Colleye fec." inscribed, lower right 

 

smooth ivory wove 

published 

The Belgian Lithograph of H. Delpierre 

20713 

$275.00 

Pierre-Joseph Witdoeck’s “Caveau No. 6” is a precursor to 19th century Symbolism and Victorian Gothic romanticism. Death, revitalization, and religious iconography are depicted in a decorative composition that might well have served as a sketch for a future crypt or other architectural shrine. Skeletons in tragic poses crowd the stormy background landscape and guard the entryway of a tomb, bedecked on either side by winged hourglasses. Angels trumpet above the opened crypt door, perhaps representing heaven. The unusual addition of an entryway opening onto a desert landscape may have been inspired by Witdoeck’s extensive travels from his home in Belgium to Algeria, Egypt, and Greece. It appears, with the inclusion of a clear sky and crowding desert plantlife, that it is perhaps meant to be a peaceful destination rather than a dry and uninhabitable place of banishment.