Hugo Simberg
Death and the Potato Picker

Death and the Potato Picker represents a continuation of Hugo Simberg’s (1873–1917) series of death-themed works. It depicts an elderly woman whom Death, in the shape of a skeleton, has come to fetch. Simberg painted it in Ruovesi, where he worked as a student of Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1865–1931) in the late 1890s. As with Simberg’s death-themed works in general, the dark-clad Death figure is not menacing; it waits patiently for the woman to finish her work before taking her on her final journey.