Currently not on view
Studies of a Head and Ear,
1665–70
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, 1617–1682; born and died Seville, Spain
2002-96
The descriptive use of red and black chalk to depict color is relatively rare among seventeenth-century Spanish draftsmen but is found often in Murillo’s drawings. This work is a study for the head and ear of a crippled beggar who appears in an altarpiece painted for a church in Seville. With a combination of short strokes of red chalk, Murillo meticulously defined the man’s hollow cheeks and facial features while economically rendering his hair with sweeping strokes of black chalk.
Information
Title
Studies of a Head and Ear
Dates
1665–70
Medium
Red and black chalk
Dimensions
18.4 x 14.1 cm (7 1/4 x 5 9/16 in.) (unframed)
Credit Line
Museum purchase, Laura P. Hall Memorial Fund and Fowler McCormick, Class of 1921, Fund
Object Number
2002-96
Marks/Labels/Seals
Stamp in black ink, lower right: PM [in oval] [Lugt 3561]
Culture
Materials
Subject
Mathias Polakovits, Paris and New York, stamp lower right [Lugt 3561]
- Frits Lugt, Les marques de collections de dessins & d'estampes: marques estampillées et écrites de collections particulières et publiques: marques de marchands, de monteurs et d'imprimeurs: cachets de vente d'artistes décédés: marques de graveurs apposées après le tirage des planches : timbres d'édition, etc., (Amsterdam: Vereenigde drukkerijen; La Haye: Nijhoff, 1921)., Lugt no. 3561
- Jonathan Brown, "Drawings by Andalusian masters", Apotheca 3 (1983): p. 9-13., p. 161; p. 163, pl. 32
- "Acquisitions of the Princeton University Art Museum 2002," Record of the Princeton University Art Museum 62 (2003): p. 107-161., p. 151
- Jonathan Brown, Susan Grace Galassi, Joanna Sheers Seidenstein and Pablo Pérez d'Ors, The Spanish manner: drawings from Ribera to Goya, (New York: Frick Collection; London: Scala Publishers, 2010). , p. 76-77, no. 21 (illus.)
- Lisa A. Banner, Spanish Drawings in the Princeton University Art Museum, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2012)., p. 5, cat. no. 2; p. 6 (illus.); p. 7 (verso illus.)
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Jonathan Brown, Murillo: virtuoso draftsman, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012).
, p. 232, no. A 3 - Manuela Mena and Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Bartolome Esteban Murillo (1617-1682), (Santander, España: Fundación Botín, 2012).
