Art Institute of Chicago

Nude Male Figures Bearing the Bodies of their Dead Companions

James Jefferys

Date

c. 1779

Medium

Pen and black ink and brush and reddish-brown wash on cream laid paper

Culture

England

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

James Jefferys’s powerful and eccentric drawing demonstrates the emotional intensity, exaggerated gesture, simplified form, and bold modeling that defined the new style forged by Henry Fuseli, whose circle Jefferys frequented when both artists lived in Rome in the 1770s. While the exact subject of the drawing is obscure, it appears that the two dead youths are being carried by their companions to a funeral pyre. An almost obsessive use of vertical ink hatching reminiscent of printmaking (in which Jefferys was trained) is accompanied by broad passages of brown wash to establish location and mood. While the artist occasionally uses light brown wash for modeling, for the most part the flesh of his strongly outlined nude figures is defined by the untouched cream-colored paper.

The authoritative record is held by Art Institute of Chicago. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.