Chapter LVI

 

Size: 57 cm x 36 cm

An exhausted Pip sits down by the convict Magwitch's infirmary bed at Newgate prison for a last time, while two guards sympathetically assist the scene from afar.

Magwitch was sentenced to death for leaving his exile to illegally enter
Britain, and, on top of that, for assumedly killing his informer in an underwater fight. The fight and the strenuous botched escape from Britain left Magwitch injured to such a degree that he was moved
from a cell to the infirmary of the prison. Meanwhile, Pip spends day after day writing petitions to various people for showing mercy to Magwitch and to avert the impending death sentence, while also being nearby to the convict at every visiting hours.
As the frequent petitions falling on deaf ears grind down our protagonist, so does also the daily sight of Magwitch's failing health. The light and liveliness slowly drains from Magwitch up to a point in which spoken words become a scarcity, and he only communicates by slight pressures with his hand in Pip's.

The last time Pip sees his benefactor is captured in this illustration. The governor of the prison, now a friend of Pip's, allows him to stay a little longer than the visiting hours. He is seen beckoning another prison officer away, to the left. In the quietness of solitude, Pip holds Magwitch's hand, and inches closer to him to impart to him the news of his daughter that he believed death. When Pip tells him of Estella, he is only able to react with a last kiss on Pip's hand, which Pip helped raise to his lips.

This picture took an unusual long amount of time to draw. Partly, due to a lot of stuff having taken place in my life, and partly because I tried to find the right composition for this touching moment. The prison interior is bleak and unwelcoming, with jagged metal fences, heavy doors, barred windows, and dusty stone columns. In contrast to it, the convict almost looks as if he were to float away and merge with the with wall behind him. He is already with one step in a better world. The high contrast of Pip compared to Magwitch make him stand out, as well as stand apart from the convict. Pip continues the journey on this world, while Magwitch concludes his final act. Pip's line of sight is also not directed towards Magwitch's face, but rather to some point behind him, as if he were looking away, or looking through a ghost.