The First Anniversary of the Death of Beatrice

This sketch, or combination of sketches as the case may be, appears on the verso of an early drawing for DGR's final 1849 pen and ink work, The First Anniversary of the Death of Beatrice .

Much rougher than the sketch on its reverse, this pen and ink drawing depicts Dante at right, looking back over his shoulder: the same arrangement of the 1853 watercolour, also titled The First Anniversary of the Death of Beatrice. It may be that while DGR was at work on the original design, he here first began to conceive of the later watercolor arrangement.

The sketch actually seems to present two Dante figures, one standing upright and one (as developed further in the watercolor version) bent at the knee. Both look leftward over their right shoulder. The crouching Dante, the furthest right of the two, is partially framed within a shaded rectangle. At left, and on a lower plane, is the drawing of a closed door with four vertical panels. Various shadings and markings may indicate other objects and figures related to the scene.