Skip to content
Pitt Rivers Museum
AboutHire the MuseumNewsletterUniversity of Oxford

1944.1.42

Line drawing showing the driving out of devils

1944.1.42

Digital asset copyright: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

Terms and Conditions

If you wish to order a high-resolution image and/or licence its use for print or web publication, exhibition, film, promotional product or any other use, whether in the academic or commercial sector of any print run, then please visit photographic services.

Collection type
Object
Description
Line drawing showing the driving out of devils
Long description
Large line drawing by Alfred Robinson showing the driving out of devils (North American Indian and Inuit representations), presumed to have been made to illustrate a publication by E. B. Tylor
Date / Period
Date made: Circa 1885-1895
Date collected
By 1917
Acquisition information
Donated: 1917 Found unentered: 01/1944
Materials and processes
Material Paper Plant, Material Pigment, Process Drawn, Process Painted
Object numbers
Accession number: 1944.1.42
Research and responses

This is a large line drawing by Alfred Robinson showing five representations of the 'driving out of devils', thought to have been made to illustrate an unidentified publication on religion or animism by E. B. Tylor (rather than a lecture, as the accession entry states). The accession entry suggests that the drawing reproduces North American Indian and Inuit depictions of the subject - see 1944.1.39 for a different representation of (apparently) the same subject. Alfred Robinson made line drawings such as this, using the same kind of paper, for a number of Tylor's publications - see, for example, his drawings for Tylor's article on 'The Winged Figures of the Assyrian and Other Ancient Monuments' (1944.1.25 - .31 and 1944.1.49 - .52); and it appears that he typically signed his works, in the same manner as here, where they were intended for publication (normally as engravings). For these reasons, one concludes that this drawing was probably used as an illustration in one of Tylor's publications (as yet unidentified) rather than to illustrate a lecture. [PG 23/01/2014]

Search terms: Picture and Graphic Art, Religion, Drawing, Painting

Further items to explore