The Boy Martyr. Artist: Frederick Sandys. Engraver: J. Swain, 1862. Wood-engraving, 3½ x 5 inches. Once a Week (22 November 1862): p.602. [Click on image to enlarge it.]
This illustration for a poem by Walter Thornbury is uncharacteristically dynamic; most of Sandys’s designs are still reveries. It represents the martyrdom of an early Christian in Nero’s arena. The drawing of the lion is perhaps one of the artist’s weaker efforts, although the half-naked torso and pose are carefully observed. In Sandys’s illustrations, death and suffering are major themes, several times visited.
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Further Reading and image resources, suggested by Dennis T. Lanigan
The Boy Martyr (1862, brush and black ink on two sheets of paper, joined). Collection of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, accession no. 1906P843. Birmingham Museums. Web. 26 August 2025.
The Boy Martyr (1862, wood engraving by Joseph Swain in black ink). Collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, accession no. 2929.6-4. National Gallery of Victoria. Web. 26 August 2025.
Elzea, Betty. Frederick Sandys 1829-1904. A Catalogue Raisonné. Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Antique Collectors' Club Ltd., 2001, cat. 2.B.56, 217-18.
White, Gleeson. "A Great English Illustrator." Pall Mall Magazine XVI (November 1898): 329.
Created 18 July 2013
Last modified (further reading added) 26 August 2025