Sketch of a Woman
Medium
pen and brown ink on wove paper
Dimensions
overall: 14 x 9.5 cm (5 1/2 x 3 3/4 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1944.2.4
Art Historical Context
Richard Parkes Bonington created this delicate sketch in 1828, the final year of his short but brilliant career. A leading figure of the Romantic era, the British-born artist spent much of his life in France, where he absorbed influences from both British watercolor traditions and French historical painting. His works are celebrated for their luminous quality and spontaneous feeling, qualities that shine through even in modest studies like this one. Executed in pen and brown ink on wove paper, the drawing measures just 14 by 9.5 centimeters. The small scale and fluid medium suggest an intimat...
About the Artist
Richard Parkes Bonington · 1802–1828
Richard Parkes Bonington (1802–1828) was a British painter and watercolorist who, despite dying at the age of twenty-five, produced a body of work that had a profound and lasting influence on French and British painting. Born in Arnold, near Nottingham, he moved with his family to Calais and then Paris in 1817, where he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts under Antoine-Jean Gros and copied Old Mas...