Cleveland Museum of Art

A Sacrifice Interrupted

John Hamilton Mortimer

Date

1770s

Medium

pen and brown ink

Culture

England, 18th century

Department

Drawings

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

One of the most talented draftsmen of his generation in England, John Hamilton Mortimer became known for a style of drawing in pen and ink that was bold, confident, and energetic. This sheet depicts a large crowd in a frieze-like arrangement gathered to witness a figure with an axe on the verge of decapitating a young male captive. Mortimer deliberately sought out obscure narratives and leaned toward the violent and macabre. In spite of the research of numerous art historians, the specific subject of the drawing has yet to be identified. John Hamilton Mortimer's close friend James Gandon described Mortimer's technique: "He never altered a line . . . and all the time he [worked] he conversed and entertained his friends with the same easy cheerfulness and pleasantry as if wholly unemployed."

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