Spring, Sketch of Winged Figure

Francis Augustus Lathrop's sketch depicts an allegorical winged figure representing Spring, rendered in ink on ochre paper. The seated female form holds a flowering branch in one hand while gesturing toward a bird in flight, embodying the season's renewal and natural abundance. Lathrop, a prominent American designer and painter, worked across decorative arts, murals, and fine art during the late nineteenth century. This drawing exemplifies the classical allegorical tradition—personified concepts through idealized human figures—that shaped American visual culture and design instruction in the 1890s. The confident line work and attention to drapery reveal study from the antique, central to academic training of the era.