Ferdinand Lured by Ariel

In this scene, taken from Shakespeare's 'The Tempest', the shipwrecked Ferdinand hears the music of the invisible sprite Ariel. The ink has been applied with a fine brush. The drawing dates from early 1848, before the foundation of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The linearity, the sparing use of shadow and the delicately drawn natural forms seem to herald the new style. This is an independent drawing, not a study, but Millais used the subject for an oil painting the following year in the fully-fledged Pre-Raphaelite style. A sketch for the oil is in the Sudley House collection.