Mistress Susanna

Item

Title

Mistress Susanna

Creator

Edwin Austin Abbey
American, 1852–1911

Date

1882

Materials

Grisaille on paper

Description

Born in Philadelphia, Edwin Austin Abbey studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts before becoming an illustrator for Harper’s in New York City. On assignment for the publisher, Abbey relocated to London for a series devoted to the seventeenth-century poet Robert Herrick. This drawing—executed to accompany the poem “Upon Mistress Susanna Southwell”—was engraved for the frontispiece of the August 1882 issue of Harper’s Monthly and later appeared in the book Selections from the Poetry of Robert Herrick. One commentator lauded Abbey’s approach to the interpretation of his subject matter: “His pictures are not sledgehammer attempts to knock into the reader the most obvious meanings of the poems. The artist has penetrated into and enjoyed the spirit of the originals.”

Source

The John Driscoll American Drawings Collection

Identifier

2018.88

Rights

This image is posted publicly for non-profit educational uses, excluding printed publication. Other uses may not be permitted.