2-742-348 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Study for "Country Cousins", c. 1847-1848. This drawing is a study for 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.