Sketch of an Angel

This ink sketch by American artist Francis Augustus Lathrop depicts a winged figure in classical drapery, rendered with loose, confident linework. The drawing demonstrates the academic training typical of late nineteenth-century American illustrators, who often worked across multiple media—from fine art to commercial illustration and early newspaper comics. Lathrop's gestural approach to form and his economy of line reflect techniques that would become foundational to comic strip aesthetics, where artists learned to convey character and movement through minimal, expressive marks. Though primarily known for his work in decorative arts and illustration, Lathrop represents the generation of skilled draftsmen whose visual vocabulary helped shape the emerging language of sequential art in newspapers.