RSA Scottish Art
The Laocoön Group (detail)
 | Artist: John A Henderson Tarbet |
| Title: The Laocoön Group (detail) | |
| Year: c. 1880-85 | |
| Medium: pencil on card | |
| Dimensions: | |
| Suggested topic: | |
| Source: RSA | |
| View full screen image of this work | |
| Open print version of this work | |
| Description: John A Henderson Tarbet was a landscape painter specialising in views of the Scottish Highlands.This work is a study, which was an important part of an artist's training in the 19th century. First the student would be set to copy engravings and then to draw three-dimensional shapes, such as cylinders and cones as tonal drawings. Later they would make drawings from plaster casts of classical sculptures. This drawing describes part of the famous marble sculpture of Laocoön and his sons being strangled by serpents. The original sculpture also shows Laocoön's sons flanking him on either side, but Tarbet has chosen to focus on the main figure of the group against a blank background rather than the arrangement of figures around the composition.This means that he has had to find a way of “fading out” the serpents, which eerily disappear into the shadows.This image has beautifully captured the agony of Laocoön's death. The deep shadowy background focuses the viewer's attention on the softly lit figure. The expression on the face has often been used as a symbol of pain, and Tarbet's representation captures this pain with great skill. The drawing has been executed to an exceptionally high standard. The tonal variation is extremely convincing, ranging subtly from deep shadow to soft highlights. The realism which Tarbet has achieved is remarkable, and in fact the drawing could be mistaken for a late 19th-century photograph. The definition of the figure and the very delicate tonal work on the body display great skill in observational drawing.This sculpture is a challenge for any student to draw, as the detail is complex and it requires an understanding of modelling and foreshortening. | |
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