Study for an Illustration for 'Romola': 'The Dying Message', Composition

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Drawing details

Title: Study for an Illustration for 'Romola': 'The Dying Message', Composition
Date: c.1862
Media: Pencil on tracing paper
Dimensions: 11.5 x 15.9 cm
Location: Royal Academy of Arts, London
Picture credit: Royal Academy of Arts, London
Reference number: 04/1132
Inscriptions: Inscribed lower right "No 48" in pencil.

Interpretation

This is a tracing for the illustration 'The Dying Message', to Chapter XV of George Eliot's novel 'Romola'. The tracing is not reversed and is almost identical to the published engraving. The scene depicts Romola's brother, Dino, on his deathbed. His 'message' is to warn Romola against a deceitful man he has seen in a premonition. This illustration was engraved by J. Linton and published in the 'Cornhill Magazine' in October 1862 as the frontispiece to the Fourth number, opposite p.433.

Description

Traced study for the composition of the illustration 'The Dying Message', to Chapter XV of George Eliot's novel 'Romola'. 

Provenance

Bequeathed by the artist to his sisters, Mrs. Augusta Matthews (nTe Augusta Neunburg Leighton, 1835-1919) and Mrs. Alexandra Orr (nTe Alexandra Leighton, 1828-1903); presented to the Royal Academy of Arts, London by Matthews and Orr in 1896