Portrait of a Man
1755–65
Medium
Red and black chalk on off-white laid paper, verso worked in black chalk (in area corresponding to the sitter's jacket on the recto)
Dimensions
Sheet: 9 1/2 × 7 3/8 in. (24.1 × 18.7 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, 2000
Accession Number
2000.7
Tags
Art Historical Context
Jean-Etienne Liotard’s *Portrait of a Man*, created between 1755 and 1765, captures the sitter’s thoughtful gaze in a delicate study executed in red and black chalk on off-white laid paper. Measuring just 9½ × 7⅜ inches, this intimate drawing from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Drawings and Prints collection reveals the Swiss artist’s mastery of preparatory sketches. The recto focuses on the man’s face with warm red tones for flesh and subtle black shading for depth, while the verso bears black chalk marks echoing the jacket’s form—hinting at Liotard’s methodical process of building a compos...