Dead Man’s Eyes
- Artist: Derek Jarman
- Date: 1987
- Medium: Glass, oil paint, gold coins and metal nails on canvas
- Dimensions: object: 410 × 363 × 24 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
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About this artwork
This is the “Dead Man’s Eyes” by Derek Jarman, painted in 1987. The canvas measures about 410 × 363 mm and is set in a 522 × 471 mm frame. Jarman layers thick black oil paint with gold leaf flashes, then presses pieces of glass into the surface and breaks them. The broken shards are scratched or engraved with words that float above the paint.
At the top left corner he writes “Night”. Along the top edge: “all we see asleep is sleep”; along the bottom edge: “Death is all things we see awake”; and in the right‑hand corner: “life”. In the centre, between a cluster of nails that echo a crucifixion shape and scattered gold coins, Jarman types “Dead Souls Whisper”—a phrase that also appears in his book *The Last of England*.
Jarman’s technique turns the canvas into a luminous surface where words rise from darkness. By embedding broken glass in black paint, he creates a texture that is both tactile and visual; the gold coins and nails add rhythm to an otherwise monochrome background.
Let us now focus again on the central inscription—“Dead Souls Whisper”—and see how it frames the whole composition.
See it in person
Dead Man’s Eyes is in the collection of Tate Britain on Millbank, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
