Head of a Spanish Monk

1832/1834

John Frederick Lewis

Associated Names
John Frederick Lewis

Artist, British, 1805 - 1876

The image shows a portrait of a man depicted from the chest up. He is positioned frontally with a slight turn of the head towards the viewer's right. The man has a rugged, aged appearance with prominent cheekbones, deep-set eyes, and a long, bushy beard. He has a full head of gray hair, unkempt beneath a dark hood. The clothing suggests a cloak or robe, with soft, earthy tones and folds drawn on the paper. The sketch is done in graphite and colored pencil, including reds and blues in the garment folds. The background is plain.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    watercolor and chalk over graphite, heightened with gouache, on buff wove paper, laid down

  • Credit Line

    Joseph F. McCrindle Endowment Fund

  • Dimensions

    sheet: 25.9 × 204 cm (10 3/16 × 80 5/16 in.)
    mount: 35 × 29.6 cm (13 3/4 × 11 5/8 in.)

  • Accession Number

    2020.49.2

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(sale, Sotheby's London, 15 July 1999, no. 99). (Guy Peppiatt Fine Art, London); purchased 2020 by NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

2023

  • Drawing in Britain, 1700 - 1900: New Additions to the Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 2023.

Inscriptions

lower center in graphite: JFL

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