Brrr, death awaits ... Fear Ankou on a full moon night. In a foggy atmosphere, the trees are menacing. The ghosts of the washerwomen wave their white shrouds. From the back of the painting, they fly to the first floor to surround Wilherm Postic. It is All Saints' Day and this disbeliever has not honored his dead. Straight hair, wide open mouth, panicked, death on his left warns him "I catch and surprise". He will soon be snatched from the world of the living and lie in the thickets because the shroud does not have to be twisted in the direction of the washerwoman at the risk of having his bones broken. Yan'Dargent recalled the fantastic legends of his childhood. The theme is taken from Émile Souvestre's collection, Le Foyer breton, published in 1844.

In Finistère, the Ankou is the personification of death or its servant. He is a leading figure in the Breton oral tradition and tales.

According to the artist's wishes and according to custom, his son requested that his body be exhumed in 1907 and that his head be placed in the ossuary with his family. This is the last known head detachment in Brittany.

© Musée des beaux-arts de Quimper.