They Were Enthroned, in the Eventide, Upon a Couch - Head-Piece, Part II

Will Hicock Low · 1885

Medium

Brown, gray and white gouache, over traces of graphite, on cream wood-pulp laminate board

Original size

30.2 × 37.2 cm (11 15/16 × 14 11/16 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Impressionism

This intimate gouache captures the hushed, twilight atmosphere its title promises — figures rendered in a warm palette of brown, gray, and white that feels both ceremonial and tender. Will Hicock Low was one of the most accomplished American illustrators of the Gilded Age, shaped by years of study in Paris under Jean-Léon Gérôme and Carolus-Duran. Working in 1885 at the height of his powers, Low brought a distinctly French elegance to American book illustration, favouring decorative, classical compositions that sit somewhere between fine art and ornament. The designation "Head-Piece" tells us this was designed to open a section of a larger illustrated work — a form Low mastered, treating each small vignette with the same seriousness he gave to full-page compositions. Low maintained a close and well-documented friendship with Robert Louis Stevenson, and the two men's collaboration produced some of the most admired illustrated books of the late nineteenth century. The original rests in the Art Institute of Chicago, worked in gouache over faint graphite traces on laminate board — a delicate object built for reproduction. This hand-painted oil reproduction translates that quiet intimacy into a medium built to last, preserving the warmth of Low's tonal range in a format suited to the wall rather than the page.