tour 28 of 28
Dürer and his legacy
Until her Death After Frederick Augustus Sandys (1832-1904)
Sandys (1832-1904) was a Pre-Raphaelite painter
from Norwich who was particularly admired for his highly expressive
wood-engravings, of which he designed twenty-five. The pious mood
of the subject of Until her
Death, in which a solitary religious vocation
is contrasted with an early death in childbirth, is typical of the
illustrations that appeared in Victorian magazines of the 1860s.
Much of Sandys' work was influenced by early German and
Netherlandish art, and this design is clearly inspired by
Dürer's
Melancholia.
In correspondence with the Dalziel Brothers, Sandys gives lengthy
instructions on how he wishes the block for the print to be cut:
'Also the lines of the face I know not if they can be cut
or if they will answer the end intended ... Please also to keep my
lines quite thick as they are throughout the block ... Mind now, no
Dürer's work.' This last comment indicates how much
Sandys has separated his admiration of Dürer's subject from
a disparaging view of the technique of woodcutting in
Dürer's day.