A Dead Linnet

In this intricate nature study, Atkinson Grimshaw (1836-1893) heightens the melancholic sentiment of this quiet, natural grave. He contrasts two single leaves, one dead and browned, the other, still green and living. With such symbolism, the picture was perhaps intended as a ‘vanitas’, where symbolic meaning offers a meditation on the brevity of existence.

It may also have been meant as a veiled criticism of the Victorian practice of keeping linnets as caged songbirds. Today, the linnet can still be seen on heathland and farms, but like so many other farmland birds, their numbers are declining rapidly, due in part to intensive agricultural practices.