The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 6, 2024

A Sacrifice Interrupted

A Sacrifice Interrupted

1770s
(British, 1740–1779)
England, 18th century
pen and brown ink
Sheet: 24.5 x 36 cm (9 5/8 x 14 3/16 in.); Secondary Support: 31.7 x 43.7 cm (12 1/2 x 17 3/16 in.)
Cornelia Blakemore Warner Fund and Delia E. Holden Fund 1978.20
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

John Hamilton Mortimer's close friend James Gandon described Mortimer's technique: "He never altered a line . . . and all the time he [worked] he conversed and entertained his friends with the same easy cheerfulness and pleasantry as if wholly unemployed."

Description

One of the most talented draftsmen of his generation in England, John Hamilton Mortimer became known for a style of drawing in pen and ink that was bold, confident, and energetic. This sheet depicts a large crowd in a frieze-like arrangement gathered to witness a figure with an axe on the verge of decapitating a young male captive. Mortimer deliberately sought out obscure narratives and leaned toward the violent and macabre. In spite of the research of numerous art historians, the specific subject of the drawing has yet to be identified.
  • ?-1978
    (Ramiel M. Howitt, London, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH)
    1978-
    Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Lee, Sherman E. "The Year in Review for 1978." Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 66, no. 1 (1979): 3-47. Mentioned: p. 44, no. 95 www.jstor.org
    Sunderland, John. "John Hamilton Mortimer, His Life and Works." Walpole Society 52 (1988). Mentioned: pp. 198-9, no. 163; Reproduced: pl. 283
    Smiles, Sam. The Image of Antiquity: Ancient Britain and the Romantic Imagination. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994. Mentioned: pp. 100-101; Reproduced: pl. 52
    Smiles, Sam. "J.H. Mortimer and Ancient Britain: An Unrecorded Project and a New Identification." Apollo 142 (November 1995): 42-46. Mentioned: pp. 45-46; Reproduced: fig. 3
    DeGrazia, Diane, and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2000. Mentioned: pp.184-185, 294, no. 75; Reproduced; 185
  • British Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art . The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 10-May 26, 2013).
    Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002).
    The Birth and Flowering of British Romantic Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 1-July 22, 1990).
    18th Century Master Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (October 6-November 22, 1981).
    Year in Review: 1978. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 13-March 18, 1979).
  • {{cite web|title=A Sacrifice Interrupted|url=false|author=John Hamilton Mortimer|year=1770s|access-date=06 May 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1978.20