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: --- 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: --- CREATORS * John Brown (British, 1752–1787) - artist --- 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: --- 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). --- 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). --- 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: --- 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. --- RELATED WORKS --- 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: --- 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