Composition

This was copied from a hand-tinted lithograph in the collection at West Point. The lithograph, from a drawing by George Cattermole (1800-1868), signed with his monogram 'GC', measures 419 x 302 mm. It represented the 'Unknown' dispensing alms, a scene in I Promessi Sposi, the 1825-1827 novel by Alessandro Francesco Tommaso Manzoni (1785-1873).

Technique

Most of the drawing is in pen and ink over charcoal. Pencil was added in the shadows, and shades the forehead of the man in the doorway. White wash is visible in the central doorway. Several areas were rubbed out, and halfway up at right, 50 mm ( 2") from the edge, an area was scraped out. The monk's glass was rubbed out, and heightened.

It is likely that the drawing was corrected by Robert Walter Weir (1803-1889).

Conservation History

The paper has a small tear at the bottom edge, and a drip down the left side.