Details

Title

Avarice (L'Avarice), from the Deadly Sins (Les Péchés Capitaux) series

Artist/Maker

James Ensor (Belgian, 1860–1949)

Date

1904

Medium

Etching

Dimensions

Contact the museum for more information

Credit

Purchase with funds from the Lawrence and Alfred Fox Foundation for the Ralph K. Uhry Collection

Accession #

72.8 E

Location

Currently not on view

Already dressed in a night shirt and night cap, a miser is too engrossed in counting and recounting his money to go to bed. A skeletal demon who is also fingering his treasure is no help as the man is brutally attacked by two thieves. The darkness seen outside the window seems to be invading the lighted room, perhaps to take over completely as the miser’s life is extinguished.