The momument portrayed here, I know from a little searching, is the Obelisk at Newtown Park in Dublin, erected in 1727 by Viscount Lord Allen as a monument/mausoleum for his wife (she was ultimately buried elsewhere, and legend has it that Joshua Allen, the 2nd Viscount of Stillorgan, had his favourite horse buried beneath it instead!) In any event, this drawing fairly closely follows an engraving of it published by Fisher, Son & Co. London, in 1832, I believe this drawing dating to the same period. Quite finely executed on card, in what appears to me to be a combination of charcoal and graphite. Of course my first thought looking at it is of our most iconic American obelisk, the Washington Monument. And the mood here, of a gray, lonely, isolated phallic monument--one figure in silhouette near the top holding a cane, maybe a coupe of others below him--seems perfectly apt.
7 1/2" x 6 5/8" . Graphite and charcoal on card, with thin green silk ribbon border, C. 1830s I believe. Very good condition.
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