About this objectAn undated pen drawing in brown ink and on cream paper, rather foxed. The drawing shows Gypsy Draper, with a cloth tied around his head, playing his violin to a girl on the right who wears a shawl. Samuel Lucas senior, undated.
Draper was a violinist who played at local dances and celebrations, including for the Delme Radcliffe family at Hitchin Priory. Some of the local Quakers diapproved of him and his playing and tried to have him moved on. Sometimes as revenge he would go and play outside their houses. When he did this to the Whiting family, Mr Whiting gathered his children together and took them to the bottom of the garden.
Draper lived with his family and their donkey in the woods around Hitchin for about 20 years. He features prominently in the Hitchin Market Place painting by Samuel Lucas Snr in which Lucas features many local people who were known to him in the middle of the 1800s.
MakerSamuel Lucas senior
Maker RoleArtist
Period19th Century (1801-1900)
Medium and MaterialsInk on paper
Inscription and MarksDedication written in ink by RLH on pencil top "This is promised to no one but E.Beck"
