'[title not known]', Elizabeth Rigby (Lady Eastlake)

Artwork details

Artist

Elizabeth Rigby (Lady Eastlake) (1809‑1893)

Title

[title not known]

Date date not known

MediumGraphite on paper

Dimensionssupport: 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

View this artwork by appointment, at Tate Britain's Prints and Drawings Rooms

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'.

August 2004