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Head Study Two

Drawing
2009 (drawn)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Alison Lambert (b.1957) is one of the foremost British draughtsmen of her generation. Her sustained attention to the human face and figure has produced an oeuvre of powerful and psychologically insightful drawings.

Lambert's working method is led by experiment and discovery. Her densely worked charcoal drawings are built up gradually on thick watercolour paper with accretions of fragmentary sheets, which are drawn on in turn. The resulting effect is part drawing, part low-relief sculpture. Head Study Two, although not on the monumental scale of some of Lambert's drawings, is a complex and compelling work and a powerful study of introspection.


Object details

Category
Object type
TitleHead Study Two
Materials and techniques
Charcoal and pastel
Brief description
Drawing, charcoal, 'Head Study Two', by Alison Lambert, England, 2009.
Physical description
Charcoal study of a head, eyes downcast.
Dimensions
  • Height: 40.9cm
  • Width: 40.5cm
The sheet of paper is uneven
Style
Marks and inscriptions
A. Lambert 2009 (Signed and dated bottom left)
Credit line
Purchased with the support of ING / Discerning Eye
Object history
'Heady Study Two' was selected as the winner of the 2009 V&A Acquisition Prize at the ING Discerning Eye exhibition held at the Mall Galleries, London in November 2009, for which Julius Bryant, Keeper of the Word and Image Department, was one of the selectors.
Subject depicted
Summary
Alison Lambert (b.1957) is one of the foremost British draughtsmen of her generation. Her sustained attention to the human face and figure has produced an oeuvre of powerful and psychologically insightful drawings.

Lambert's working method is led by experiment and discovery. Her densely worked charcoal drawings are built up gradually on thick watercolour paper with accretions of fragmentary sheets, which are drawn on in turn. The resulting effect is part drawing, part low-relief sculpture. Head Study Two, although not on the monumental scale of some of Lambert's drawings, is a complex and compelling work and a powerful study of introspection.
Bibliographic references
  • Susan Owens, The Art of Drawing British Masters and Methods since 1600, London, 2013, p.198, fig. 157
  • ING Discerning Eye Exhibition 2009, Esher : Parker Harris, 2009 no. 3/49
Collection
Accession number
E.197-2010

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Record createdFebruary 9, 2010
Record URL
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