'Study for 'And the Sea Gave up the Dead which were in it': Background

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Drawing details

Title: 'Study for 'And the Sea Gave up the Dead which were in it': Background
Date: c.1872-74
Media: Black and white chalk on paper
Dimensions: 36.5 x 30.7 cm
Location: Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Picture credit: Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Reference number: 726

Description

Compositional study for the right hand side of the background of the painting 'And the sea gave up the dead which were in it' (1891-92, Tate Gallery). A wave, clouds, four male figures and a tomb rising from the water are shown. The composition is very like the finished work except that here the lower portion of the right leg and the foot of the main figure, to the right, are visible, whereas in the finished work this part is concealed by a wave. 

Provenance

Collection of Charles Fairfax Murray (painter, collector and dealer, 1849-1919); presented to the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge by Murray in 1911 

Bibliography

• Ormond, LeonTe and Richard, 'Lord Leighton', Yale University Press, London, 1975, plate 155
• Reynolds, Graham, '19th Century Drawings 1850-1900', Pleiades Books, London, 1949, p.58