Cleveland Museum of Art
Sketches of Heads (verso, left); Two Women (verso, right)
John Brown
- Date
- c. 1770–75
- Medium
- left: graphite; right: gray and black wash with point of brush and graphite
- Culture
- England, 18th century
- Department
- Drawings
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
John Brown is known for a small group of monochromatic drawings imbued with sinister overtones. At the age of 20, the Scottish artist traveled to Italy where he spent the next 12 years. This drawing exemplifies his Roman street scenes which often depict women dressed in spectacular, billowing costumes. Here, a figure with bare ankles and plunging décolletage is surrounded by a crowd of men who leer at her. The reverse of the sketchbook sheet includes two independent drawings: a study of faces in fierce and intense expressions, and a pair of women wearing swirling gowns. One figure raises her hand in a mysterious gesture, either beckoning or forewarning the viewer. John Brown meant for the dark background of this drawing to evoke the potential danger of Italian nights; the writer Johann Joachim Winckelmann had been murdered in Trieste in 1768, in the most conspicuous example of the period's widespread violence.
The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.
Related across collections
Semantically similar works from Cleveland Museum of Art and other institutions.
Woman Standing among the Friars (recto) Sketches of Heads (verso, left); Two Women (verso, right)
Cleveland Museum of Art
Four Studies of Heads Drawn over a Copy of Saint John the Evangelist by Correggio (recto); Three Studies of Men (verso)
Getty Museum
Portrait of a Woman
Cleveland Museum of Art
Woman and Man Playing Cards (verso)
Cleveland Museum of Art
Tomyris with the Head of Cyrus (verso)
Cleveland Museum of Art
Hunting Scene (recto); Two Studies of a Pair of Reclining River-Gods (?), a Sarcophagus Front (?) verso
Getty Museum
Study of a man's right hand (recto); Studies of four heads and of a nude figure seen from the rear (verso)
Getty Museum
Study of Two Men (recto); Study of the Head of a Bearded Man (verso)
Getty Museum
Head of a Female Figure (recto); Female Nude (verso)
Getty Museum
Three Studies of Women (recto); Four Studies of Hands and a Counterproof of a Kneeling Young Man (verso)
Getty Museum
Woman Standing among the Friars (recto)
Cleveland Museum of Art
Head of a Screaming Man (recto); Woman and Man Playing Cards (verso)
Cleveland Museum of Art