id: 144655
accession number: 1969.28
share license status: CC0
url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1969.28
updated: 2023-01-11 02:44:10.338000
Woman Standing among the Friars (recto) Sketches of Heads (verso, left); Two Women (verso, right), c. 1770–75. John Brown (British, 1752–1787). Graphite and gray and black wash with point of brush; image: 25.8 x 36.9 cm (10 3/16 x 14 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Dudley P. Allen Fund 1969.28
title: Woman Standing among the Friars (recto) Sketches of Heads (verso, left); Two Women (verso, right)
title in original language:
series:
series in original language:
creation date: c. 1770–75
creation date earliest: 1765
creation date latest: 1780
current location:
creditline: Dudley P. Allen Fund
copyright:
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culture: England, 18th century
technique: graphite and gray and black wash with point of brush
department: Drawings
collection: DR - British
type: Drawing
find spot:
catalogue raisonne:
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CREATORS
* John Brown (British, 1752–1787) - artist
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measurements: Image: 25.8 x 36.9 cm (10 3/16 x 14 1/2 in.)
state of the work:
edition of the work:
support materials:
inscriptions:
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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
title: Year in Review: 1969
opening date: 1970-01-27T05:00:00
Year in Review: 1969. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (January 27-February 22, 1970).
title: The Poetical Circle: Fuseli and the British
opening date: 1979-04-24T05:00:00
The Poetical Circle: Fuseli and the British. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia (April 24-May 27, 1979); Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Austria (June 5-July 29, 1979); Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia (organizer) (September 1-27, 1979); Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand, Auckland, New Zealand (October 24-November 25, 1979).
title: Northern European Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art
opening date: 1982-11-16T05:00:00
Northern European Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 16, 1982-January 9, 1983).
title: The Birth and Flowering of British Romantic Art
opening date: 1990-05-01T04:00:00
The Birth and Flowering of British Romantic Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 1-July 22, 1990).
title: British Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art
opening date: 2013-02-10T00:00:00
British Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art . The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 10-May 26, 2013).
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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS
* Chefs-d'oeuvre des collections parisiennes. Musée Carnavalet, Paris (November - December, 1950).
* The Splendor of 18th-Century Rome. Philadelphia Museum of Art (March 16 - May 28, 2000); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (June 25 - September 17, 2000).
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PROVENANCE
(William Young Ottley, London)
date: ?-?
footnotes:
citations:
Sir Thomas Lawrence [1769-1830], London
date: ?-1830
footnotes:
citations:
(sale, Christie's, June 17, 1830, no. 99, purchased by Russell)
date: 1830
footnotes:
citations:
Russell
date: 1830-?
footnotes:
citations:
Private Collection, Paris
date: ?-?
footnotes:
citations:
(Eugene V. Thaw and Co., New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH)
date: ?-1969
footnotes:
citations:
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
date: 1969-
footnotes:
citations:
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fun fact:
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.
digital description:
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.
wall description:
A beguiling artist with a brief career, 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 coquette with bare ankles and plunging décolletage is surrounded by a crowd of vulgar types who leer, ogle, judge, and scorn. 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 that casts a shadow on her throat resembling a claw. Whether the viewer is being beckoned or forewarned remains a mystery.
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RELATED WORKS
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CITATIONS
Todd, Ruthven. Tracks in the Snow. London: Grey Walls Press, 1946.
page number: Mentioned: pp. 87-88
url:
Chefs-d'oeuvre des collections Parisiennes. Exh. Cat. Paris: Musée Carnavalet, 1950.
page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 45, no. 92
url:
Powell, Nicholas. "Brown and the Women of Rome." Signature: A Quadrimestrial of Typography and Graphic Arts, no. 14 (1952).
page number: Mentioned: p. 42; Reproduced: facing page
url:
Lee, Sherman E.. "The Year in Review for 1969." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 57, no. 1 (January 1970): 2-50.
page number: Reproduced: p.19, no. 157; Mentioned: p. 48, no. 157
url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25152307
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.
page number: Reproduced: p. 194
url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n214
Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century British Watercolours and Drawings. London: Sotheby's,1981.
page number: Mentioned: p. 66, under no. 73
url:
Calvini, Anna Ottani. "Inglesi in Italia nel secolo XVIII: Benjamin West, James Barry, John Brown, John Flaxman." In Pittori europei in Italia: Pittori italiani in Europa. Milan: Edizioni Angelo Guerinie Associati, 1990.
page number: Mentioned: pp. 59-81, 76, no. 9; Reproduced: p. 76, no. 9
url:
Upstone, Robert. Sketchbooks of the Romantics. Secaucus, NJ: Wellfleet Press, 1991.
page number: Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 174-75
url:
Craske, Matthew. Art in Europe, 1700-1830: A History of the Visual Arts in an Era of Unprecedented Urban Economic Growth. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.
page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 256, no. 117
url:
Macmillan, Duncan. Scottish Art, 1460-2000. Edinburgh: Mainstream Pub, 2000.
page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 128, no. 103
url:
Bowron, Edgar Peters and Joseph J. Rishel. Art in Rome in the Eighteenth Century. Exh. Cat. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2000.
page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 480, no. 323
url:
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IMAGES
web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1969.28/1969.28_web.jpg
print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1969.28/1969.28_print.jpg
full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1969.28/1969.28_full.tif