View this artwork by appointment, at Tate Britain's Prints and Drawings Rooms
- Artist
- Elizabeth Rigby (Lady Eastlake) 1809–1893
- Medium
- Graphite on paper
- Dimensions
- Support: 283 x 241 mm
- Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Purchased as part of the Oppé Collection with assistance from the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund 1996
- Reference
- T09812
Display caption
This work demonstrates the use of pencil for a finished portrait. Rigby has paid particular attention to the face and hair: the contrast between the darker rounded strokes for the ringlets and the lighter strokes for the face and bonnet throws the curls into relief. It is possible that a softer pencil was used for the curls. Despite Rigby's obvious talent for drawing, she chose to make a career out of journalism. A biography records that 'Literature was to be her vocation and career, but drawing her delight'.
Gallery label, August 2004
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