Brigands

Loutherbourg probably made this drawing depicting the lives of rustic outlaws soon after he moved from France to London, where it was a popular theme. In eighteenth-century Britain, such scenes appealed to the same taste for the fantastic, the exotic, and the sublime that spurred the rise of Gothic novels. Here, a group of bandits raise goblets, perhaps in celebration of a recent raid. The diverse group includes rough men dressed in armor, an older man in ragged furs and a head wrap, and a beautiful young woman who may be their captive. Rather than preparatory for an oil painting, this drawing was likely conceived as a finished work, perhaps intended for engraving (2022).