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The corpse is an essential motif in Western art. Even so, its iconography has varied enormously throughout the course of art history. This variation can be explained, in part, by the hesitations surrounding the acceptation of what is a corpse. Schematically is it to be affiliated with an object or with an individual. The work of historians such as Philippe Aries and today Anne Carol tend to demonstrate that the 19th century is a moment when these considerations surrounding the corpse become more complex. The question raised by this article is the impact of the two concepts on the art of this period. Effectively comparative studies show an evolution in the methods of representing the corpse, with works emphasizing the materiality of the body, as in Théodore Géricault’s Fragments Anatomiques (1819). But does it indicate an inclination to move from the representation of corpse as subject towards the corpse object? The discernible differences in the evolution of the motif of the corpse between the status of the works, their subject and even the type of corpses represented renders the question more complex and leads to a broader view of the whole contemporary period.