Illustration from Svartedauen (The Black Death)

What it is

This is an illustration by the Norwegian artist Theodor Kittelsen, made for a 1901 book called Svartedauen ('The Black Death'), published by L.E. Tvedte. The image shows a rider on a horse in the rain, with a pale, corpse-like figure draped over the horse's neck and a dark bird flying overhead, alongside Norwegian verse and a skull-and-scythe emblem.

Why it matters

Centuries after the actual pandemic, Kittelsen's haunting imagery became one of the most famous artistic visions of the Black Death in Norwegian culture. It shows how later generations imagined the plague as a ghostly, personified force of death rather than through historical documentation alone.

Look closer

• Why might the artist have chosen to show death as a rider rather than depicting ordinary plague victims?
• What mood do the rain, dark bird, and skull emblem create together?
• How does this imagined, symbolic image differ from a historical map or eyewitness account of the plague?