Study for -The Lapland Witch- c. 1775 - 1777
georgeromney
minneapolisinstituteofart
drawing
drawing
toned paper
light pencil work
pencil sketch
personal sketchbook
ink drawing experimentation
england
sketchbook drawing
portrait drawing
watercolour illustration
sketchbook art
watercolor
This drawing, "Study for -The Lapland Witch-", is a preparatory sketch by the English artist George Romney for his later oil painting of the same name. The artwork is a study of a woman in a dramatic pose, perhaps intended to be a witch or sorceress. The artist uses loose, gestural lines to capture the movement and emotion of the figure, highlighting the woman's anguish. This style is typical of Romney’s work, which often explored themes of human emotion and expression through a Romantic aesthetic.
Comments
George Romney embraced the “sublime,” the flip side of the Age of Enlightenment. He was obsessed with the passions, the power of nature, the supernatural—those forces beyond human comprehension and control. In the popular imagination of the 18th century, Lapland was home to witches capable of raising storms and causing shipwrecks, and Romney wanted to capture their magic. His efforts began with fiery sketches like this one. In 1778, Romney’s friend and biographer William Hayley wrote a verse on the artist’s conjuring of a Lapland witch. Note his comment that the freedom of the artist’s drawing would need to be tempered when it came time to execute the painting. "Round fancy’s circle when thy Pencil flies,With what terrific pomp thy Spectres rise!What lust of mischief marks thy Witch’s form,While on the Lapland Rock she swells the storm!Tho’ led by Fancy, thro’ her boundless reign,Well dost thou know to quit her wild domain,When History bids thee paint, severely chasteHer simpler scene, with uncorrupted taste."
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