This website presents our knowledge and research on this important aspect of the Royal Collection. As of April 2026 it will not be regularly updated and new research on this topic will sit within the main website.

Holy Families & Madonna and Child

Holy Families & Madonna and Child

FREDERICK CHRISTIAN LEWIS (1779-1856)

Study for the head of the Virgin

published 1 May 1818

Etching with plate-tone | 37.7 x 25.7 cm (sheet of paper) | RCIN 851299

A facsimile of a drawing by Raphael (c.1502-03) now in the British Museum, London (inv. no.1895,0915.611). Lettered with production details and title. The drawing is a study for the figure of the Virgin. A photograph of the drawing at RCIN 851298. The print shows the head and shoulders of a veiled female figure, her head tilted down to the left and her eyes cast down.
  • Creator(s)

    Frederick Christian Lewis (1779-1856) (etcher)

    After Raphael (Urbino 1483-Rome 1520) (artist)

    William Young Ottley (1771-1836) (publisher)

  • 37.7 x 25.7 cm (sheet of paper)

    27.9 x 19.1 cm (image)

    32.8 x 21.0 cm (platemark)

  • The Madonna.

  • Added to the Prince Consort's Raphael Collection (c.1853-76)

  • Bibliographic reference(s)

    p.142, no.35r (Joannides 1983 : Joannides, P., 1983. The Drawings of Raphael, with a complete catalogue, Oxford)

    p.37, no.18 (Gere/Turner 1983 : J.A. Gere and Nicholas Turner, 1983. Drawings by Raphael from the Royal Library, the Ashmolean, the British Museum, Chatsworth and other English collections, London)