The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 19, 2024

Study for "Country Cousins"

Study for "Country Cousins"

c. 1847–48
(British, 1804–1888)
England, 19th century
black, red, and white chalk
Sheet: 37.5 x 27 cm (14 3/4 x 10 5/8 in.)
Bequest of Dr. Paul J. Vignos, Jr. 2011.127
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

The subject matter of Richard Redgrave's paintings was shaped by his impoverished upbringing, the deaths of his mother and sister, and the burden of responsibility for debt-collecting for his father's precarious manufacturing business.

Description

This drawing is a study for Richard 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.
  • ?-?
    (Thomas Deans and Co. Tallahassee FL)
    ?-2011
    Dr. Paul J. Vignos, Hunting Valley, OH, bequeathed to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    2011-
    Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Lemonedes, Heather. British Drawings: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Exh. Cat. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2013. Mentioned: pp. 30-31, 148, no. 30; Reproduced: p. 31
  • British Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art . The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 10-May 26, 2013).
  • {{cite web|title=Study for "Country Cousins"|url=false|author=Richard Redgrave|year=c. 1847–48|access-date=19 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2011.127