Lot 330
SIR WILLIAM BLAKE RICHMOND (1842–1921)
STUDY FOR 'THE RESURRECTION': SLEEPING ROMAN SOLDIER, LATE 1890's
Estimate: £500 - £800
Auction: Lots 1 to 336 | 16th October at 10am
Description
black and white chalk on brown paper, framed
Dimensions
26cm x 43cm (frame size 41cm x 59cm)
Provenance
Provenance: Estate of the late Dr. Susan Beattie
Footnote
Note: Between 1899 and 1904, four quarter-dome mosaics were added to the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral, based on designs by William Blake Richmond. These mosaics, produced and installed by James Powell and Sons, marked a significant departure from the smooth, flat, and non-reflective tesserae style used in earlier designs of G.F. Watts in 1866. Richmond instead embraced a more dynamic and vibrant aesthetic, utilising jagged, irregular glass pieces set at angles to the plaster to catch and reflect light. This innovative technique was inspired by Richmond's study of Byzantine and early Christian mosaics in Ravenna, Monreale, and Rome. The current lot, a depiction of a sleeping Roman soldier, is a study for part of the quarter-dome composition entitled "The Resurrection".
