Figures in a Landscape
1828.
Pen and brown ink over pencil, partially squared up in pencil. Signed and dated in pencil 'GR 1828'.
227 x 175 mm.
(8 7/8 x 6 7/8 inches.)
London 1809 ~ 1896 London
The years between 1826 and 1832 were critical for Richmond. For example, in 1825 he met William Blake, whom he worshipped and compared to the Prophet Isaiah, and in 1827 he spent several intense weeks working with his lifelong friend, Samuel Palmer, at Shoreham in Kent. These two artists saw Shoreham as a sort of native British wilderness. Richmond later recorded the time at Shoreham as amongst the happiest weeks of his life.
Our drawing dates from the year following Richmond's summer in Shoreham. The imagery of Blake and the influence of Shoreham come together in several of his early drawings. The soft pencil outlines of the trees in the background and the large male head in profile are so reminiscent of Blake, it has been suggested that Richmond might have used a discarded Blake sketch! Could this be the fragment of a big sheet reused by the younger artist? This large head is very close to Blake's drawing of The Head of a Ghost of a Flea executed in 1819 (Tate Britain).1
Watercolour and oil on panel, 490 x 360mm.
Signed and dated 'G. Richmond pin. 1830'.
It has been pointed out that the works of this early period illustrate, not only Biblical and literary themes but also 'high-minded if obscure genre subjects such as The Eve of Separation.' 2 This romantic painting, in the Ashmoleum Museum, Oxford, was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1830. Our squared sheet might have been a preliminary idea for this painting, initially conceived as Two Lovers; a subject which could certainly explain the form and content of our drawing. The beautiful female figure, in the foreground of our sheet, with head seemingly bowed in despondency, is seated next to a male figure, roughed in with two alternative poses. This male companion is depicted as looking upwards - perhaps at the moon. If this theory holds validity, Richmond must have later decided to show his lovers intertwined in grief under the light of the waning moon.
The acknowledged correspondence of the male figure, in The Eve of Separation, to the shapes and poses of single figures on Michelangelo's Sistine Ceiling, could also be applied to our beautiful female nude. Her posture, including her elegantly crossed feet conjures up the same images. At this early stage of his career, Richmond would have known the Sistine frescoes through prints.
1. I am very grateful to Andrew Wyld for pointing out this Blake connection.
2. David Blayney Brown in AA.VV., The Dictionary of Art (online edition), Oxford University Press, 2008.
