Street Scene from Vanity Fair, with Amelia, George Osborne and Dobbin (recto); Sketch of Young Woman (verso)

Art Historical Context

This delicate double-sided drawing captures a lively street scene from William Makepeace Thackeray’s celebrated novel *Vanity Fair*. On the recto, rendered in watercolor over graphite, three central characters—Amelia, George Osborne, and Dobbin—appear amid bustling figures wearing hats, evoking the social whirl and subtle tensions of early nineteenth-century London society. The compact sheet, measuring just 7 by 5 inches, demonstrates Thackeray’s skill at distilling narrative moments into intimate, expressive compositions. The verso offers a quick graphite sketch of a young woman, revealing t...