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Follow the dense parallel pen strokes that model the face, then notice the parted lips and the straight edge where the drawing stops.
A woman’s head, wrapped in a veil, turns aside with lips parted and eyes lifted. David built the face entirely from close pen strokes in iron-gall ink, and the drawing breaks off along a straight line at the right. The Art Institute dates it about 1780, the year his first stay in Rome came to an end.
Pen and iron-gall ink on white laid paper · 19 × 13.2 cm · Art Institute of Chicago · Neoclassicism
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Details and source
- Museum title
- Head of a Woman
- Artist
- Jacques-Louis David French, 1748-1825
- Date
- c. 1780
- Medium
- Pen and iron-gall ink on white laid paper
- Dimensions
- 19 × 13.2 cm (7 1/2 × 5 1/4 in.)
- Credit line
- Gift of Richard and Mary L. Gray
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Art Institute of Chicago
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.