Richard Redgrave RA, Two compositional sketches for 'The Reduced Gentleman's Daughter'

Two compositional sketches for 'The Reduced Gentleman's Daughter', c. 1840

Richard Redgrave RA (1804 - 1888)

RA Collection: Art

A sheet featuring two small compositional sketches in pen and ink over pencil 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 which was engraved by Richard Hatfield and published on 10 April 1842.

The contrast of light and shade seems to have been the artist's preoccupation in many of the compositional sketches in the album.

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'.

All objects in this group

Object details

Title
Two compositional sketches for 'The Reduced Gentleman's Daughter'
Artist/designer
Richard Redgrave RA (1804 - 1888)
Date
c. 1840
Object type
Drawing
Medium
Pen and ink over pencil on wove paper
Dimensions

55 mm x 138 mm

Collection
Royal Academy of Arts
Object number
16/1347
Acquisition
Given by Evelyn Hodgen June 2016
return to start
back

Start exploring the RA Collection

read more
  • Explore art works, paint-smeared palettes, scribbled letters and more...
  • Artists and architects have run the RA for 250 years.
    Our Collection is a record of them.
Start exploring