- Artist
- George Richmond 1809–1896
- Medium
- Tempera on oak
- Dimensions
- Support: 229 × 305 mm
frame: 334 × 406 × 40 mm - Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Purchased 1948
- Reference
- N05858
Display caption
Richmond was the youngest of Blake’s followers known as the ‘Ancients’. He
first met Blake in 1824. Later that year he became a student at the Royal Academy. This was his first exhibited picture, shown at the Academy in 1825. It shows Abel, the son of Adam and Eve, who was described in Genesis as ‘a keeper of sheep’.
Richmond had asked Blake’s advice about using tempera. Blake copied out for him a passage from a modern edition
of a fourteenth-century treatise on art by Cennino Cennini (reproduced on the panel to the left). Richmond’s choice of medium and support here reflects this advice.
Gallery label, September 2004
Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? We would like to hear from you.
Explore
- people(22,072)
-
- actions: postures and motions(9,111)
-
- reclining(814)
- actions: processes and functions(2,161)
-
- sleeping(315)
- adults(20,120)
-
- man(10,453)
- nudes(2,569)
-
- male(959)
- Bible: Old Testament(381)
-
- Abel(6)