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The Devil and Tom Walker
John Quidor (American, 1801–1881)
1856
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- Framed: 84 x 104 x 8.5 cm (33 1/16 x 40 15/16 x 3 3/8 in.); Unframed: 68.8 x 86.6 cm (27 1/16 x 34 1/8 in.)
- Culture
- United States
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, American Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
Based on a story by Washington Irving published in 1824, The Devil and Tom Walker presents a miserly man who encounters the devil while traveling through a heavily wooded swamp. Walker, seen on the left in the painting, strikes a deal with the devil, who holds an ax at far right, soon gaining riches but losing his soul in the process. Ultimately, the devil destroys Walker.
