Charon, n. d.

The Vienna-based painter and graphic artist Wilhelm List (1864–1918) studied in Vienna, Munich, and Paris. He became a member of the Secession and responsible editor of its journal, Ver Sacrum. His main area of work were female portraits and landscapes. But, as this lithograph evidences, he also had a penchant for the mythological. It is executed in a narrow horizontal format in black and dark-blue inks and has an extremely eerie look to it. And the subject, after all, is eerie: Charon, the ferryman of Hades, carries the souls of the dead across the river Styx right up to the gate of the underworld. He is seen standing in the boat as a nude athletic male figure. Holding the helm, he glides across the deep dark waters where black swans are swimming and which reflects the plants on the riverbank. At the stern of the boat, death is cowering down with his scythe. Added to the work is an excerpt from the score and libretto of Richard Wagner’s (1813–1883) opera Tristan and Isolde, “where have I ever been, wherever I go.”

BL, 2021