Three Portraits in Profile
1765–1800
Medium
Pen and brown ink, over black chalk
Dimensions
Sheet: 8 1/8 in. × 13 in. (20.7 × 33 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 2014
Accession Number
2014.781
Tags
Art Historical Context
Carl August Ehrensvärd a Swedish nobleman, naval officer, and amateur artist (1745–1800), *Three Portraits in Profile sometime between 1765 and 1800. This intimate drawing, executed in pen and brown ink over black on a modest sheet measuring 8⅛ × 13 inches, captures three male figures in sharp profile view. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department, it exemplifies the refined draftsmanship of late 18th-century Europe. The profile format evokes classical antiquity—think Roman coins and cameos—popular during the Enlightenment for their noble simplicity and silhou...