Creative Commons License
Creative Commons License
Creative Commons License
Creative Commons License
Illuminated Tailpiece with Thistle and a Skull for William T. Walters' Drawing Album "Original Sketches"
(18th and 19th Centuries )
This drawing was specially commissioned from an as yet unidentified artist as the tailpiece to one of William T. Walters' albums of drawings. It shows a thistle growing up through the eye of a skull. The word "emigravit" appears below on a scroll. This is Latin for "departed," a word sometimes chosen for gravestone inscriptions. The thistle down blowing away in the wind is also a kind of momento mori.
Inscription
Provenance
Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.
Commissioned by William T. Walters, Baltimore, by 1859; inherited by Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1894; by bequest to Walters Art Museum, 1931.
Exhibitions
| 2014 | American Artists Abroad: Works from the Permanent Collection . The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. |
Geographies
USA (Place of Origin)
Measurements
H: 8 1/16 × W: 6 in. (20.4 × 15.3 cm); Paper support H: 9 1/4 × W: 7 1/4 in. (23.5 × 18.4 cm); Mat H 19 1/4 × W: 14 1/4 in. (48.9 × 36.2 cm)
Credit Line
Commissioned by William T. Walters, by 1859
Location in Museum
Not on view
Accession Number
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
37.1948
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