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Source 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.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
144657
label
Sketches of Heads (verso, left); Two Women (verso, right)
core
obj
dtoType
drawing
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
144657
contentType
drawing
title
Sketches of Heads (verso, left); Two Women (verso, right)
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.
date
c. 1770–75
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q79922120
creators
1307
genreSpecific
Drawing
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Sheet: 25.7 x 18.6 cm (10 1/8 x 7 5/16 in.)
cul
England, 18th century
accession
1969.28.b
Source extras
tec
left: graphite; right: gray and black wash with point of brush and graphite
tombstone
Sketches of Heads (verso, left); Two Women (verso, right), c. 1770–75. John Brown (British, 1752–1787). Left: graphite; right: gray and black wash with point of brush and graphite; sheet: 25.7 x 18.6 cm (10 1/8 x 7 5/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Dudley P. Allen Fund, 1969.28.b
collection
DR - British
didYouKnow
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.
creditline
Dudley P. Allen Fund
updatedAt
2026-05-29 07:25:58.454000
sourceId
144657
dept
Drawings
coll
DR - British
med
left: graphite; right: gray and black wash with point of brush and graphite
creatorTags
male
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
aad0657f94691eb9