An evil man, representing medicine and religion (?), gloats over the death of the freedom of the individual in Switzerland to consume absinthe, represented as a green woman stabbed by a cross. Colour lithograph after A.-H. Gantner, 1910.

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<p>The central figure wears a blue cross on his chest and carries a Bible. He points to a clock held by a bat, indicating midnight on 7 October 1910, the deadline for absinthe-drinkers, and stands in triumph over the cadaver of a green, half-naked good-time girl representing absinth (the "green fairy"). She has been murdered with a dagger, the hilt of which is also in the form of a blue cross: her death represents the end of good times for absinthe-drinkers and the absinthe industry. In the background, left, the oath of the Rütli, 1291, representing the flourishing of Swiss liberty; right, Switzerland personified by a decrepit seated Norn, representing the degeneration of liberty in 1910</p>

Guguss'

1 print : lithograph, printed in colours ; image and border 49 x 31 cm.

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Corboz et Fischlin (Romont, Switzerland)

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An evil man, representing medicine and religion (?), gloats over the death of the freedom of the individual in Switzerland to consume absinthe, represented as a green woman stabbed by a cross. Colour lithograph after A.-H. Gantner, 1910.

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Wellcome uses cookies.

Corboz et Fischlin (Romont, Switzerland)

Images

Works

An evil man, representing medicine and religion (?), gloats over the death of the freedom of the individual in Switzerland to consume absinthe, represented as a green woman stabbed by a cross. Colour lithograph after A.-H. Gantner, 1910.

Wellcome Collection

Today’s opening times