Man with Violin Case

Philip William May · 1897

Medium

Pen and black ink over black chalk and touches of graphite, heightened with white gouache, on ivory wove paper

Original size

35 × 23.7 cm (13 13/16 × 9 3/8 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Impressionism

Man with Violin Case captures the quiet dignity of an everyday Londoner with the spare, confident line that made Philip William May one of the most admired draughtsmen of the late Victorian era. May built his reputation through Punch and a string of popular illustrated annuals, but his real gift was for the street: costermongers, crossing-sweepers, music-hall regulars, the kind of people Victorian illustration had previously treated as comic relief. Here, the subject — a working man, instrument case tucked under his arm — is rendered with warmth rather than caricature. May worked in pen and black ink over black chalk and graphite, then lifted highlights with white gouache, a technique that gives his figures a flickering, almost cinematic energy against the ivory paper. May was famously disciplined about economy of line: he would sketch a subject dozens of times, eliminating strokes until only the essential marks remained. The result always feels effortless, though it was anything but. The original has been held in the Art Institute of Chicago since its accession into the collection. Our hand-painted oil reproduction translates May's delicate tonal range — the ink's crisp darks, the chalk's mid-tones, the gouache highlights — into paint on canvas, preserving the character and intimacy of a work that rewards close looking.