Adam and Eve Discover the Dead Abel

The drawing is a variation on a theme Tkadlík rendered as soon as 1819-1820 in a large painting Adam and Eve Lamenting the Dead Abel (The Death of Abel). His education at the Prague Academy had set Tkadlík on a path as a draughtsman and figure painter in the historiy painting genre. He became above all intrigued with depicting the naked (male) body and he slowly tested the expressive and symbolic options that it offered.