Husband and Wife

Mary Ellen Edwards

1867

Wood engraving by Horace Harral

6 x 4 inches

Illustration for Anthony Trollope’sThe Claverings, The Cornhill Magazine, January 1867, facing p.1.

A telling image of Hermione and Hugh in which the doting wife is reluctant to let her husband go. The illustration strongly conveys her over-possessiveness and Edwards creates an expressionistic effect in the contrast between the agitated lines of her crinoline and Sir Hugh’s black suit. Hall regards this as the best of the series (p. 113), and it certainly exemplifies Edwards’s flexible drawing, which is both descriptive and expressive.

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