Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery Pre-Raphaelite Online Resource : The Collection

Life's Journey - Proof

By Frederick Sandys

1862

Accession number: 1906P848

Wood engraving printed in black ink on paper.

Width: 110 mm

Height: 135 mm

A man, facing slightly to the right, bending over an injured boy in a forest setting. On the topr right corner is a gnarled tree whose roots have spilled over onto the path. A cottage can be seen in the background. In the bottom left corner is a large thistle and in the bottom right is a bird's nest and the artist's monogram.

Information

This is a proof of an illustration commissioned to accompany the poem 'Life's Journey' by George Wither (1558-1667). It was published in Rev. Robert Aris Willmott's anthology 'English Sacred Poetry' in 1862. It appears to have been Sandys's first collaboration with the Dalziel Brothers, the leading firm of wood engravers, and he was very pleased with the results. In a letter dated 24 October 1861 he enthused: 'The more I look at the cutting of 'Life's Journey' the more I am delighted' (quoted in Bettey Elzea, 'Frederick Sandys 1829-1904: A Catalogue Raisonné,' p. 205).