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 19th 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 2nd of 4 states (citing Singer); see also Zdanowicz “Herkomer” (1993)