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Study for "Gil Blas and the Archbishop" (from Sketchbook of Figure and Landscape Subjects)

ca. 1839
Not on view
The execution of sketches and studies was a crucial part of Edmonds’s creative process. Many of his drawings exist as independent works--apparently never taken further--but many others represent an initial step in his conception for paintings. This sketchbook, which he began about 1838, includes both types of drawings of a variety of subjects.
The present work is a well-developed preparatory study for Edmonds’s oil painting of about 1849 “Gil Blas and the Archbishop.” The theme derives from Alain-René Lesage’s eighteenth-century French novel “Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane,” which Edmonds had read in a translation by the English picaresque novelist

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Study for "Gil Blas and the Archbishop" (from Sketchbook of Figure and Landscape Subjects)
  • Artist: Francis William Edmonds (American, Hudson, New York 1806–1863 Bronxville, New York)
  • Date: ca. 1839
  • Culture: American
  • Medium: Graphite on off-white wove paper
  • Dimensions: 6 5/8 x 8 1/4 in. (16.8 x 21 cm)
  • Credit Line: Sheila and Richard J. Schwartz Fund, 1987
  • Object Number: 1987.196.3d
  • Curatorial Department: The American Wing

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Preparing for Christmas (Plucking Turkeys), Francis William Edmonds American, Oil on canvas, American
Preparing for Christmas (Plucking Turkeys)
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Powder Horn, Horn (cow), lead, American
Powder Horn
American
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Saada, the Wife of Abraham Ben-Chimol, and Préciada, One of Their Daughters, Eugène Delacroix French, Watercolor over graphite on wove paper
Saada, the Wife of Abraham Ben-Chimol, and Préciada, One of Their Daughters
Eugène Delacroix
1832
Cock Fight (from Sketchbook), Francis William Edmonds American, Graphite on off-white wove paper, American
Cock Fight (from Sketchbook)
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ca. 1838 and after
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