Figure of a Woman
c. 1776
Medium
Brush and brown ink on cream laid paper
Dimensions
43.2 × 23.8 cm (17 1/16 × 9 3/8 in.)
Classification
ink
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
51382
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
This fresh and spontaneous drawing was the fruit of a new style of draftsmanship Romney adopted after returning from two years in Italy (1773–75). In Rome, he would have been introduced to Fuseli (who lived there 1770–78) and the radical style he and his circle were developing. This sketch’s rapidly applied ink and wash, characterized by long, fluid strokes of the brush, functioned as a rehearsal for the actual physical marks Romney would employ in his paintings. Figure of a Woman was probably ...
About the Artist
George Romney · 1734–1802
George Romney (1734–1802) was a British portrait painter who, alongside Sir Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough, formed the triumvirate of great English portraitists in the second half of the eighteenth century. Born in Dalton-in-Furness, Lancashire, he received his early training from the itinerant portrait painter Christopher Steele before moving to London in 1762. Romney quickly establishe...