Head of a Bearded Man Gazing to His Left
Medium
pen and brown ink
Dimensions
sheet: 22.6 × 18.4 cm · secondary support: 28.1 × 24 cm
Classification
Drawing
Department
Drawings
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift in memory of Helen Borowitz
Accession Number
2013.241
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
male
About this artwork
For William Mulready, drawing was a lifelong preoccupation. This sheet was drawn from a model in the Royal Academy’s life school when the artist was 73. He was one of the Academy’s most devoted teachers, positioning the model for his students and then drawing alongside them. Closely observed and meticulously crafted, the work attests to Mulready’s consummate skill as a draftsman, and the weather-beaten face of the male model is as arresting today as it was in Victorian London.