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Head of a Bearded Man Gazing to His Left
William Mulready1859
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States
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.
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Details
- Title: Head of a Bearded Man Gazing to His Left
- Creator: William Mulready (British, 1786-1863)
- Date Created: 1859
- Physical Dimensions: Sheet: 22.6 x 18.4 cm (8 7/8 x 7 1/4 in.); Secondary Support: 28.1 x 24 cm (11 1/16 x 9 7/16 in.)
- Provenance: William Drummond, London, (Shepherd Gallery, New York), Helen and Albert Borowitz, Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- Type: Drawing
- Rights: CC0
- External Link: https://clevelandart.org/art/2013.241
- Medium: pen and brown ink
- Inscriptions: inscribed, in brown ink, at lower left: R Academy / 24 June 1859 / W.M.; inscribed, in graphite, at lower left corner: 156
- Fun Fact: This instantly recognizable model was the subject of at least one other drawing, titled <em>Head of an Old Man</em>, in the collection of Tate Britain today.
- Department: Drawings
- Culture: England, 19th century
- Credit Line: Gift in memory of Helen Borowitz
- Collection: DR - British
- Accession Number: 2013.241
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