Painting - The Bride of Death

The Bride of Death was painted for a French princess over 170 years ago by an artist called Thomas Jones Barker. The painting is based on a ballad that tells the tragic story of a bride who died the night before her wedding day. If you look closely you might notice that the objects surrounding the bride are actually symbols, which represent something important about the scene. For example the dog beside her bed symbolises faithfulness. This shows how popular the use of symbolism was in early 19th century art. It can also make us think about the advances made in medicine over the last 170 years.

It was painted for the daughter of King Louis Philippe of France. It is Barker's most famous painting, and he won prizes and medals for it in France.