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George Romney

Prospero, Miranda, and Caliban, from The Tempest

c. 1786
Graphite on ivory laid paper
39 × 57.4 cm (15.4 × 22.6 in)

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In the collection of Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago · as of July 2026

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FROM THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO’S CATALOG

What appears to be a single multi-figured composition on this sheet are, in fact, two variant studies (divided by a vertical line right of center) for the shipwreck scene from Shakespeare’s comedy The Tempest . On the left side of the sheet, Miranda, daughter of the magician Prospero, implores her father to stop the storm he has unleashed. A few vertical lines and a pair of heads in alternate positions suggest the figure of Prospero. To Miranda’s immediate right crouches the monster Caliban. On the sheet’s other half, Miranda clings to a more graphically developed Prospero. A curlicue at far right may indicate Caliban.

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