A Philosopher in a Moonlit Churchyard
Philippe-Jacques de Loutherbourg
1790
This remarkable romantic painting may illustrate part of a poem by Edward Young, The Complaint: or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death & Immortality (1742–45). It represents a young man standing beside an open grave among the ruins of Tintern Abbey, with its north transept identifiable in the background. He pauses to meditate on death and resurrection—the latter emphasized by a painting of the risen Christ that survives in an arched recess on the left. A sundial above the sculpture casts a moonlight shadow, showing that the time depicted is one o’clock in the morning.
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven · Image: Yale Center for British Art, Public domain · Text: Yale Center for British Art, CC0