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Secondary sourcePainting1806

Alexander the Great on his Sickbed

1806

An 1806 painting imagining Alexander ill at Babylon, drinking from a cup while attendants and a reader of a scroll look on.

A later artist's imagined scene of Alexander's final illness at Babylon, part of the retelling of his death.

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Oil painting of a reclining young man in a white tunic and red blanket, drinking from a gold cup held by an attendant. An older bearded man in a yellow cloak reads a scroll at left, and two standing men, one shirtless with a blue cloak, one in an orange tunic, look on. A spear, shield and helmet hang on the wall.
Alexander the Great on his Sickbed, 1806. National Gallery of Denmark.

About this source

What it is

This oil painting from 1806 shows a young man reclining in a tunic, drinking from a gold cup held by an attendant, while an older man reads a scroll and others look on. It is held by the National Gallery of Denmark and depicts Alexander's illness at Babylon.

Why it matters

Painted nearly two thousand years after Alexander's death, this work shows how 19th-century artists imagined the final days of his life. It reflects the enduring fascination with Alexander's story and the artist's own era's ideas about heroism and mortality, more than it documents the real event.

Look closer

  • What mood does the painting create, and how?
  • What objects in the room hint at the man's identity as a warrior?
  • Since no one alive in 1806 witnessed this scene, what choices did the artist have to make?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Alexander the Great on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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