A figure weeping over a grave

Within a lunette, an heroically muscled young man mourns within a churchyard, near a child’s grave. At right, a palm tree that bends sympathetically over the desolate figure recalls Biblical designs by William Blake, whom Richmond revered. The distant landscape, dotted with tiny buildings, displays a touch perfected during the artist's training as a miniaturist, and resembles brown ink drawings by his friend Samuel Palmer. Around 1826, the two young men had formed "The Ancients," an artistic brotherhood that looked closely at early Italian and Northern prints and found inspiration in the landscape near Shoreham in Kent. Richmond here melds romantic references – a graveyard setting, gothic church façade, and figure confronting mortality – with hints of divine comfort offered by nature.