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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1983.138.B
People
Unidentified Artist
Title
Two Studies of Heads
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
17th century
Culture
Flemish
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/294998

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Black chalk and touches of white chalk on light tan paper
Dimensions
32.9 × 40.9 cm (12 15/16 × 16 1/8 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
[Sotheby Parke Bernet & Co., London, 1 December 1983, lot 22], sold; to Harvard University Art Museums, 1983.

Published Text

Catalogue
Drawings from the Age of Bruegel, Rubens, and Rembrandt: The Complete Collection Online
Authors
Multiple authors
Publisher
Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2017–)

Entry by Austeja Mackelaite, completed April 03, 2018:

Executed on a coarse sheet of tan paper, this drawing served as a backing for a fragile early 16th-century study of the Pietà, drawn in pen and ink by a different hand.1 The linear application of black chalk, as well as the pose and the physiognomy of the female head at right—with her tall forehead and rounded chin—is reminiscent of 17th-century Flemish draftsmanship, including head studies by Jacob Jordaens. This suggests that the drawing is likely to have originated in mid-17th-century Flanders.

1 Unidentified artist, Pietà, 1983.138.A.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Marian H. Phinney Fund
Accession Year
1983
Object Number
1983.138.B
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Subjects and Contexts

  • Dutch, Flemish, & Netherlandish Drawings

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu