Sketch for Putto

Francis Augustus Lathrop's ink sketch depicts a cherubic figure in classical tradition—a seated putto with wings, rendered in loose, confident line work on aged paper. The drawing demonstrates the academic study methods of late nineteenth-century American decorative artists. Lathrop, a prominent designer and muralist, used such preliminary sketches to develop compositions for larger works in illustration, book design, and architectural ornament. The sketch exemplifies the direct hand of an artist working within the European tradition of figure study that dominated American design practice in the 1890s, before modernism would reshape artistic priorities and methods.