Private collection
Date: 1888
Technique: Oil on canvas, 55 x 90 in.
The bearded man is Ahasuerus, the legendary wanderer at the end of the world. He is the last man in the polar wilderness, caught between the angel of hope and the specter of death. Before him lies a fallen female figure, the personification of dead humanity, as crows circle ominously. (From Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter by James Gurney)
Source