A nude youth on horseback, a male nude with raised arm, and a cloaked bearded man (recto). A sleeping girl and a man in medieval dress (verso)

The recto of this drawing a rider on a rearing horse and heroic male nude recall the Dioscuri (Horse Tamers) in the Piazza del Quirinale, Rome. Behind these figures is a bearded prophet with a raised arm. On the verso is a sleeping girl and man in medieval dress. The imagery has not been connected to a particular source, but romantic literary and fantastic subjects predominate in Von Holst’s oeuvre, derived from Virgil, Dante, Shakespeare, Victor Hugo, and Goethe.
Von Holst’s precocious talent was recognized by Thomas Lawrence, who bought a drawing from the youth when the latter was ten years old. After taking lessons from Henry Fuseli, Von Holst entered the Royal Academy Schools at the age of fourteen in 1824. Fuseli remained a strong influence stylistically and the works of the two artists have often been confused. In 1959, an album assembled by John Welch Etherington Rolls (1807-1870) appeared at auction containing drawings by both artists, and subsequent research allowed a core group to be securely ascribed to Von Holst, the present sheet among them.