Study for 'The Painter's Honeymoon': Composition

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Drawing details

Title: Study for 'The Painter's Honeymoon': Composition
Date: c.1864
Media: Black and white chalk on blue paper
Dimensions: 6.6 x 5.1 cm
Location: Victoria and Albert Museum
Picture credit: By Courtesy of the Board of Trustees of the Victoria and Albert Museum
Reference number: E.491-1931
Inscriptions: The back of the original frame was inscribed "Three Projects for Pictures, including one for 'The Painter's Honeymoon' by the late Lord Leighton P.R.A. being No 27 of Exhibition No 157 December 1896 at the Fine Art Society's (148 New Bond St.) called

Interpretation

This is likely to have been an earlier idea which was later developed into the composition for the finished painting 'The Painter's Honeymoon'. This drawing was originally framed with drawings E.491-1931 and E.492-1931 also at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Description

Study for a composition similar to that of the painting 'The Painter's Honeymoon' (c.1864, untraced). A male and female figure sit side by side. To the left, the male figure is facing the viewer and sitting on a stool. He is resting a drawing board on his knee and draws with his right hand. A female figure is sitting beside him with her body turned to the left. The male figure is holding her right hand with his left. To the upper right of the composition is a shelf with two items resting on it, perhaps sculptures. 

Provenance

Collection of Frederick Louis Lucas (d.1931) (at the time of Lucas's death this drawing, framed together with E.490-1931 and E.492-1931, hung in the billiard room of his home at 15 Westbourne Terrace, London W2); bequeathed to the Victoria and Albert Museum by Frederick Louis Lucas in 1931