A study for 'The Eve of Separation'

This is a drawing for the finished painting in oils and tempera on panel of The Eve of Separation, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1830 and now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; in 1866 Richmond temporarily deposited the painting with the Academy as his Diploma work, awaiting his portrait of Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford (see Lister, op.cit., pp. 95, 128-9, illustrated in colour, p. IX, fig. 20). Richmond noted in his earliest account books, in December 1829, 'Begun a Picture on Panel for the Exhibition - of Two Lovers', and this is presumably the approximate date of the present drawing.

The composition is one of a number showing embracing figures done around this time; see also Sisterly Affection, and Hagar in the Wilderness, (Lister, op.cit, pls. IV, fig. 9, and V, fig. 11). The figure style derives from William Blake and, through works like Blake's copy of Abias (illustrated M. Butlin, The Paintings and Drawings of William Blake, New Haven and London, 1981, p. 207), Michaelangelo.