This painting is an attempt to capture the experience of the death of a beloved person. The focus is on the woman lying at the feet of a statue, next to a weeping willow tree. Beside her is a walled garden, representing life: it holds a fountain of clear water, and its walls are covered in young vines. The bench there is empty, though, since a tragic death of one we love makes us leave our normal lives and contemplate something beyond the ‘walls’ of everyday concerns. In the distance stands a huge rock formation, surrounded by barren sands. Like death, it seems absolutely foreign and dangerous – yet beyond it is the infinite distance of the sea. Far from being sterile and lifeless, the sea instead shows us a plethora of life beyond that which we know. Like the possibility of a life beyond this one, the sea is mysterious and can be both threatening and beautiful.

A person who is mourning remains isolated from both the world of the living and the world of the dead – she cannot follow the one whose death has saddened her, but neither can she forget him and return immediately to her ordinary life. Even the divine seems hardened to her pleas; the stone angel is immobile. However, to focus on the death alone, rather than looking at the infinite horizon opened by it, would be a mistake.