Runge devised one of the earliest and greatest monuments of German Romanticism, a series of designs representing the four Times of Day. He began his drawings in 1802 and first published them as line engravings. In this study of a vulnerable infant, preparatory for the composition of Morning, the child looks upward into the morning light with hands parted in wonder, expressing the union between man and nature, nature and God, and God and man: to "hear and feel the living breath of God who holds and bears the world." -- Exhibition Label, from "Drawn to Greatness: Master Drawings from the Thaw Collection"
Inscribed on verso in pen and light brown ink at right edge (possibly by the artist's brother, Daniel?), "Original von Philipp Otto Runge 1809".
Runge, Otto Sigismund, 1901- former owner.
Thaw, Eugene Victor, former owner.
Thaw, Clare, former owner.
The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY, "Drawn to Greatness: Master Drawings from the Thaw Collection", 2017. Exh. cat., no. 347, repr.
The Thaw Collection : Master Drawings and Oil Sketches : Acquisitions since 1994. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 2002, no. 20.