Richard Redgrave RA, Four compositional sketches for 'The Reduced Gentleman's Daughter', c. 1840.
Pen and ink with white highlights on wove paper. 147 mm x 194 mm. © Photo: Royal Academy of Arts, London.
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Four compositional sketches for 'The Reduced Gentleman's Daughter', c. 1840
Richard Redgrave RA (1804 - 1888)
RA Collection: Art
An irregularly cut sheet featuring four small compositional sketches in pen and ink for 'The Reduced Gentleman's Daughter'. Redgrave painted this scene illustrating a passage from The Rambler and exhibited it at the Royal Academy in 1840. He later produced a print of the scene engraved by Richard Hatfield and published on 10 April 1842.
On the sheet are also two small diagrams which appear to relate to the contrasts of light and shade in the composition mentioned above. This seems to have been a preoccupation in many of Redgrave's compositional sketches in the album. Here the artist has further added white highlights to some of the sketches to indicate areas where there should be more light.
A set of preparatory drawings for 'The Reduced Gentleman's Daughter' in an album of Redgrave's works (16/1281). These include small compositional sketches in pen and ink and a more detailed colour study.
The scene is one that Redgrave painted and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1840 though the original painting is now untraced. The composition was also engraved by Richard Hatfield (example in the V&A) and published in 1842.
The subject is derived from an episode in Samuel Johnson's The Rambler in which 'a poor lady seeks for a situation, and is cruelly received by her would-be employer'.
Object details
147 mm x 194 mm
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