Inscribed (verso): Claudio and Isabella           

Pencil, 9 3/4 x 5 3/4 ins (25 by 14.5 cm)

Provenance: Mrs E.Burt; with Agnew’s in 1970

Literature: J.Bronkhurst, William Holman Hunt: A Catalogue Raisonne, London, 2006, vol.II, p.26

Exhibited: on loan to the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (1965-1970), Walker Art Gallery, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1969, no.114

This important sheet of studies relates to one of the most iconic paintings of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Claudio and Isabella which is now in the Tate and illustrates a scene from Measure for Measure. Bronckhurst (op cit) notices some significant differences between this drawing and the final painting, particularly in the pose of Isabella which appears here as one of restraint/horror, her hands depicted as defensively held tightly against her chest. The beautiful study of the hands (lower right) bears closer comparison with Holman Hunt’s final idea for the picture, in which Isabella’s reaction is one of more tender tactility.