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Head of an Italian man

Drawing
ca.1752-3 (drawn)
Artist/Maker
Wilson, Richard (RA) (artist)
Place of origin
Rome (drawn)
Italy (drawn)

Life-size head of a man, with a three-quarter view of the face, which is inclined forward slightly and turned to the left, his straggling locks partly confined by a band across the forehead; Drawn in black chalk, softened with the stump, and heightened with white.

Object details

Category
Drawings
Object type
Drawing
TitleHead of an Italian man
Materials and techniques
drawn in black chalk, softened with the stump, and heightened with white
Paper
Black Chalk
Drawing (Image-Making)
Heightening
Brief description
Wilson, Richard (RA); Life-size head of a man, with a three-quarter view of the face; Drawn in black chalk, softened with the stump, and heightened with white; English School; ca.1752-3
Physical description
Life-size head of a man, with a three-quarter view of the face, which is inclined forward slightly and turned to the left, his straggling locks partly confined by a band across the forehead; Drawn in black chalk, softened with the stump, and heightened with white.
Dimensions
  • Height: 14.3in
  • Width: 10.4in
  • Height: 36.9cm
  • Width: 26.5cm
Original measurements converted from fractional inches into decimal inches (rounded to one decimal place). Dimensions taken from: DYCE COLLECTION. A Catalogue of the Paintings, Miniatures, Drawings, Engravings, Rings and Miscellaneous Objects Bequeathed by The Reverend Alexander Dyce. London : South Kensington Museum, 1874.
Style
English School
Credit line
Bequeathed by Rev. Alexander Dyce
Subject depicted
Man's Head
Bibliographic references
  • DYCE COLLECTION. A Catalogue of the Paintings, Miniatures, Drawings, Engravings, Rings and Miscellaneous Objects Bequeathed by The Reverend Alexander Dyce. London : South Kensington Museum, 1874.
  • David Solkin, Richard Wilson: The Landscape of Reaction (London: Tate Gallery, 1982): 'In both subject and technique this drawing relates closely to the works fo Giambattista Piazzetta (1683-1754), a Venetian history-painter whose chalk studies of heads were well known throughout eighteenth-century Europe. Wilson probably sketches this local "type" in or around 1752, when he produced his only paintings in Piazzetta's manner, the "Old Man" and the "Capuchin" [. . . ] acquired by Ralph Howard. If such a dating is correct, this would make the V&A "Italian" one of the earliest known Wilson drawings in black and white chalk on middle-tint paper; that Piazzetta may have been one important source for this technique has not been previously suggested.' (cat. 23, p. 158.)
  • Brinsley Ford, The Drawings of Richard Wilson (London: Faber and Faber, 1951), p.54, no. 19
Collection
Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number
DYCE.637

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Record createdOctober 29, 2009
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1139654/head-of-an-italian-man-drawing-wilson-richard-ra/
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