The Stranger

Maker Cecil Gordon Lawson (British, 1849 - 1882)

Collections

British Drawing Highlights

ClassificationsDRAWINGS

Date1872 (?)

Mediumopaque watercolor with traces of graphite on wove paper

Dimensionssheet/ image: 5 1/2 x 5 in. (14 x 12.7 cm.) mat: 19 x 12 1/2 in. (48.3 x 31.8 cm.)

SignedSigned in lower right in graphite: C G Lawson-72

InscribedInscribed on sheet recto below image in graphite: The Stranger / Meifod [illegible]

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

Status

Not on view

Label TextThough the title of this work hints at a possible narrative, it is hard to grasp. A small child points to a figure sprawled on a bench, while several others look on. The lack of a clear story gives the image an unsettling quality that perhaps reflects the figures’ own questions about this stranger. Lawson based the composition on an illustration he had previously produced for a magazine article on a seaside town. Though now worked in opaque watercolor, the image retains much of the wood engraving’s strong patterning. The medium is thickly applied, giving depth to the shadows; the lurid yellow of the sky adds to the scene’s uneasy mood (2022).

Object number91.287