Out of Time

The first surprise about this sketch is that it was made in 1865 - the last year of the American Civil War. The second is that it is the work of Dante Gabriel Rossetti - one of the three founders of the 'Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood' - founded 20 years earlier. The third is that, although the drawing was made in England, the child is African-American - if that term can be applied to that period, and if indeed he was born in America. According to the information with the picture Rossetti met him in a London hotel, where he was "accompanying" an American man, so there is speculation that he was a slave. His name is lost. It is also recorded that Rossetti's aunt said he was boisterous in the studio, but wept when he settled himself to sit for the picture

Rossetti used the sketch as the basis of a child in one of his most famous paintings, 'The Beloved' - one of the features of which is the various skin tones of the figures in the painting. The fidelity of the oil painting to the original sketch is remarkable (at least on the web - it's not in the exhibition) 

In a gallery full of Pre-Raphaelite art - highly coloured; intricately worked; stuffed with symbolism, iconography, mythology, religiosity; constrained by the conventions of 'the Brotherhood' - the sketch stands out for its simplicity, directness and modernity. For me at least, my contemprary disquiet about its history and the ultimate use that it was put to just adds to its power