A Figure Weeping Over a Grave

George Richmond

1827 or 1829 · Pen and brown ink over graphite · Drawings and Prints

Within a lunette, an heroically muscled young man mourns within a churchyard, near a child’s grave. At right, a palm tree that bends sympathetically over the desolate figure recalls Biblical designs by William Blake, whom Richmond revered. The distant landscape, dotted with tiny buildings, displays a touch perfected during the artist's training as a miniaturist, and resembles brown ink drawings by his friend Samuel Palmer. Around 1826, the two young men had formed "The Ancients," an artistic brotherhood that looked closely at early Italian and Northern prints and found inspiration in the landscape near Shoreham in Kent. Richmond here melds romantic references – a graveyard setting, gothic church façade, and figure confronting mortality – with hints of divine comfort offered by nature.

Artist

George Richmond

Date

1827 or 1829

Medium

Pen and brown ink over graphite

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Harry G. Sperling Fund, 2009