Description

A painting inspired by the ballad "Lenore", written in 1774.

The ballad is about a girl called Lenore whose betrothed, a young soldier named Wilhelm, did not come home from the Battle of Prague. So everyone was sure he was dead, and Lenore cursed God and the saints for letting him die.
But one night, someone knocked at her door and said he would take her to the wedding now: it was Wilhelm who everybody had thought was dead. Of course Lenore agreed to come with him, though it was almost midnight. So they rode on his horse for hours, until the first sunrays of dusk were visible through the tree branches.
At this point, Wilhelm turned his head to Lenore, and terrified, she saw that it was no more than a pale skull.