A Study for "The Ransom"

1853–1854

Medium

Graphite and gray wash heightened with touches of white

Dimensions

25.7 × 11.8 cm

Status

In Museum Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-208828

In two separate pencil sketches the artist studies a group of figures with a father embracing his two daughters, for whose release he has just paid a ransom. The drawings plan the central group in Millais’ painting *The Ransom*, also at the Getty ([72.PA.13][1]). In the hasty top sketch the artist seems to consider making these three figures more prominent than in the final painting, and the focus of a tight, vertical composition, while in the lower—more complete—drawing more consideration is given to the surrounding cast of characters. A related double-sided sketch focusing solely on the father and daughters ([London, Royal Academy of Art Collections, inv. 02/270][2]) was made earlier in the creative process and is drawn on paper watermarked 1853, placing the Getty drawing also in that time period. These drawings all show the father looking happily down at his daughters rather than—in the final painting—at the kidnapper, which resulted in a more tense eventual scene. The Getty drawing provides evidence that the artist was originally contemplating *The Ransom* as a pendant to the vertical-format [The Order of Release, 1746][3] (London, Tate) on which he was working in the sam…