Group of Angels

This ink sketch by Francis Augustus Lathrop depicts multiple winged figures arranged in dynamic composition around a central angelic form. The drawing employs loose, gestural line work characteristic of late 19th-century illustration practice, with particular attention to drapery and the articulation of wings. Lathrop, an American designer and illustrator active in the Aesthetic Movement, used such studies as preparatory work for larger decorative schemes and publications. The sketch exemplifies the classical iconography and technical draftsmanship that grounded American commercial art before the modern comic strip emerged in the 1890s.