A Little Boy Lost 1920

Dorothy Lathrop created “A Little Boy Lost” using pen and ink, a medium allowing for fine detail and strong contrast. Lathrop's meticulous stippling creates texture across the landscape, implying depth and distance, while the cross-hatching defines form and shadow on the figures of the boy, the horse, and the mysterious hooded figure. The texture is not inherent to the materials but built by the careful, skilled application of ink, a laborious process, imbuing the artwork with a tactile quality. The horse and rider hover above the boy, and this sense of scale adds to the image’s narrative tension. Lathrop's illustration sits at the intersection of craft and fine art, achieved through a printing process that democratized access to art, while elevating the craft of illustration to an art form.