Collections: American Art: Peasant with Water Jug: Study for "The Well"

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Peasant with Water Jug: Study for "The Well"

Daniel Ridgway Knight’s great skill as a draftsman is apparent in this preparatory pencil study for the finished painting on view nearby. Not surprisingly, the focus of this study is the figure: the artist is unlikely to have executed such finished drawings for the composition’s landscape elements, which are more broadly rendered in the painting. Knight delineated every detail of the figure’s contours and the neat geometry of the jug. He further elaborated the forms with delicate passages of shading, which anticipate the light effects and color relationships in the finished work.


• Artist: Daniel Ridgway Knight, American, 1839-1924
• Medium: Graphite on wove paper
• Dates: ca. 1880
• Dimensions: Sheet: 10 1/8 x 7 1/8 in. (25.7 x 18.1 cm)
• Signature: Initialed lower left in graphite: "D R K"
• Collections: American Art
• Museum Location: This item is not on view
• Accession Number: 1989.29.2
• Credit Line: Purchased with funds given by Mr. and Mrs. Leonard L. Milberg
• Image: Overall, 1989.29.2_bw_SL1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
Daniel Ridgway Knight (American, 1839-1924). Peasant with Water Jug: Study for "The Well," ca. 1880. Graphite on wove paper, Sheet: 10 1/8 x 7 1/8 in. (25.7 x 18.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Purchased with funds given by Mr. and Mrs. Leonard L. Milberg, 1989.29.2 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 1989.29.2_bw_SL1.jpg)
• Catalogue Description: Figure traced on verso in graphite