Designs for Monuments [recto and verso]

John Flaxman

1790

graphite

From the collection of National Gallery of Art

Romanticism 18th Century

About this work

This sketch shows rough drawings of tombs and statues. The lines are quick and shaky, like someone jotting down ideas fast. Some shapes look like draped cloth, others like broken columns or figures lying down. The paper is thin—you can see marks on the back too. This was likely a study, not a finished piece. The artist used light shading and some darker lines to show depth. Next, look up cross-hatching to see how artists build shadows with lines.