Pictorial notes in the National Gallery
An illustrated visitor's handbook to London's National Gallery, compiled by the art writer and editor Henry Blackburn and published by Chatto and Windus in 1877 for gallery-goers who wanted a sketch record of the collection. Its 241 small line drawings reduce paintings to outline and hatching: biblical and genre figure groups, children in woodland, robed women at a well, musicians with lutes, and dim firelit interiors, useful as compact figure-group compositions and shading patterns.
