Brigands

Maker Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg (French, 1740 - 1812)

ClassificationsDRAWINGS

Daten.d.

Mediumbrush and bown and black ink and wash over traces of graphite on laid paper mounted on laid paper

Dimensions12 1/2 x 17 1/2 in. (31.8 x 44.5 cm.)

SignedSignature P. J. de Loutherbourg

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Gilbert Davis Collection

Status

Not on view

Label TextLoutherbourg probably made this drawing depicting the lives of rustic outlaws soon after he moved from France to London, where it was a popular theme. In eighteenth-century Britain, such scenes appealed to the same taste for the fantastic, the exotic, and the sublime that spurred the rise of Gothic novels. Here, a group of bandits raise goblets, perhaps in celebration of a recent raid. The diverse group includes rough men dressed in armor, an older man in ragged furs and a head wrap, and a beautiful young woman who may be their captive. Rather than preparatory for an oil painting, this drawing was likely conceived as a finished work, perhaps intended for engraving (2022).

Object number59.55.875

Terms