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Source Description
One of the most talented draftsmen of his generation in England, John Hamilton Mortimer became known for a style of drawing in pen and ink that was bold, confident, and energetic. This sheet depicts a large crowd in a frieze-like arrangement gathered to witness a figure with an axe on the verge of decapitating a young male captive. Mortimer deliberately sought out obscure narratives and leaned toward the violent and macabre. In spite of the research of numerous art historians, the specific subject of the drawing has yet to be identified.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
149357
label
A Sacrifice Interrupted
core
obj
dtoType
drawing
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
149357
contentType
drawing
title
A Sacrifice Interrupted
description
One of the most talented draftsmen of his generation in England, John Hamilton Mortimer became known for a style of drawing in pen and ink that was bold, confident, and energetic. This sheet depicts a large crowd in a frieze-like arrangement gathered to witness a figure with an axe on the verge of decapitating a young male captive. Mortimer deliberately sought out obscure narratives and leaned toward the violent and macabre. In spite of the research of numerous art historians, the specific subject of the drawing has yet to be identified.
date
1770s
citation
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q79930465
creators
1373
genreSpecific
Drawing
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Sheet: 24.5 x 36 cm (9 5/8 x 14 3/16 in.); Secondary Support: 31.7 x 43.7 cm (12 1/2 x 17 3/16 in.)
cul
England, 18th century
accession
1978.2
Source extras
tec
pen and brown ink
tombstone
A Sacrifice Interrupted, 1770s. John Hamilton Mortimer (British, 1740–1779). Pen and brown ink; sheet: 24.5 x 36 cm (9 5/8 x 14 3/16 in.); secondary support: 31.7 x 43.7 cm (12 1/2 x 17 3/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cornelia Blakemore Warner Fund and Delia E. Holden Fund, 1978.20
supportMaterials
description
cream(3) laid paper
collection
DR - British
didYouKnow
John Hamilton Mortimer's close friend James Gandon described Mortimer's technique: "He never altered a line . . . and all the time he [worked] he conversed and entertained his friends with the same easy cheerfulness and pleasantry as if wholly unemployed."
citations
citation
Lee, Sherman E. "The Year in Review for 1978." <em>Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art </em>66, no. 1 (1979): 3-47.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 44, no. 95
citation
Sunderland, John. "John Hamilton Mortimer, His Life and Works." <em>Walpole Society</em> 52 (1988).
page_number
Mentioned: pp. 198-9, no. 163; Reproduced: pl. 283
citation
Smiles, Sam. <em>The Image of Antiquity: Ancient Britain and the Romantic Imagination</em>. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994.
page_number
Mentioned: pp. 100-101; Reproduced: pl. 52
citation
Smiles, Sam. "J.H. Mortimer and Ancient Britain: An Unrecorded Project and a New Identification." <em>Apollo</em> 142 (November 1995): 42-46.
page_number
Mentioned: pp. 45-46; Reproduced: fig. 3
citation
DeGrazia, Diane, and Carter E. Foster. <em>Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2000.
page_number
Mentioned: pp.184-185, 294, no. 75; Reproduced; 185
creditline
Cornelia Blakemore Warner Fund and Delia E. Holden Fund
updatedAt
2026-05-29 07:41:09.716000
sourceId
149357
dept
Drawings
coll
DR - British
med
pen and brown ink
creatorTags
male
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
91d7f40ee2258624