The Dead Christ with Angels (1866–67): Art, History and Details

The Dead Christ with Angels (1866–67) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Édouard Manet (French, 1832–1883).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Edouard Manet often reinterpreted his own paintings as prints, using various techniques to bring his work to a broader audience. Here, he relied on a combination of aquatint and repeating marks to realistically suggest Christ’s lifeless body in the tomb where he was placed following his crucifixion. The figure’s vacant gaze and the deep shadows behind him led critics to deride the work as grotesque in its realism. The etching was the largest Manet made and, perhaps as a result, only a few impressions—including the one seen here—were made from the plate.

Object facts

• Title: The Dead Christ with Angels
• Date: 1866–67
• Creator attribution: Édouard Manet (French, 1832–1883)
• Culture: France, 19th century
• Type: Print
• Technique: etching and aquatint
• Dimensions: Image: 32.9 x 38 cm (12 15/16 x 14 15/16 in.); Plate: 39.4 x 32.9 cm (15 1/2 x 12 15/16 in.)
• Collection: PR - Etching
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1961.151

A detail from the museum

This etching was the largest that Édouard Manet made.

Collection credit

Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.