Study for "Country Cousins"

c. 1847–48

Richard Redgrave

(British, 1804–1888)

Culture

England, 19th century

Medium

black, red, and white chalk

Support

Thick gray wove paper

Measurements

Sheet: 37.5 x 27 cm (14 3/4 x 10 5/8 in.)

Credit Line

Bequest of Dr. Paul J. Vignos Jr. 2011.127

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Location

Not on view

Did You Know?

The subject matter of Richard Redgrave's paintings was shaped by his impoverished upbringing, the deaths of his mother and sister, and the burden of responsibility for debt-collecting for his father's precarious manufacturing business.

Description

This drawing is a study for Richard Redgrave’s oil painting Country Cousins, a modern life subject in which class conflict is played out in a domestic interior. In the painting, a rural family calls upon their wealthy relations and is met with sneering condescension. The youngest figure in the composition, a country boy in profile with downcast eyes, is the subject of this acutely observed drawing, exquisitely rendered in black and red chalk with white highlights.