“By What Right Does She Accuse Me of Sins I Am Not Responsible For?”

“By What Right Does She Accuse Me of Sins I Am Not Responsible For?”

The illustration features two women in finery dressing (or cowering to the ground, under the scorn of three “crone” like figures, hunched over and brandishing their fists and canes at the young pair. The central of the aggressing figures stands at profile, with an aged and sharp featured facial silhouette, almost witch-like. The heavy gestural brush work in dark value leaves the setting and background elements ambiguous, with the faintest suggestion of an ornate oval or mirror object set between the two groups. Raleigh engages with the portrayal of terror, evil, ambiguity, and gothic archetypes in his depiction both setting and character.

Henry Raleigh

D.B. Dowd Modern Graphic History Library, Washington University in St. Louis

Fiction Illustration, magazine tearsheet