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Secondary sourcePainting1901

Plate Pesta12 from Svartedauen

Theodor Kittelsen · 1901

A haunting illustration by Theodor Kittelsen from his 1901 book Svartedauen, showing a frightened face hiding in a dark interior during the Black Death.

A later artistic depiction of fear and hiding during the Black Death, imagined centuries after the pandemic.

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Black-and-white pen-and-ink print of a dark wooden interior. A pale, wide-eyed, frightened face peers out from a shadowy corner beneath slanted floorboards. Light streams through gaps in the wooden ceiling above. Thick wooden posts frame the left and right edges.
Theodor Kittelsen, Plate Pesta12 from Svartedauen, 1901. National Library of Norway.

About this source

What it is

This print, created by Norwegian artist Theodor Kittelsen in 1901 for his book Svartedauen, shows a pale, frightened face peering from a shadowy corner beneath wooden floorboards, with light streaming through gaps above.

Why it matters

Kittelsen's imagined scenes of the Black Death, made centuries after the pandemic, reflect how people in his own time pictured the terror of a disease that killed enormous numbers across Europe and Norway. The frightened face gives a human face to fear and hiding, themes associated with plague outbreaks.

Look closer

  • What emotion does the frightened face convey, and how does the artist achieve this?
  • Why might someone hide, according to this image?
  • How does light and shadow affect the feeling of the scene?

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

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