Portrait of a Gentleman Black and white chalk on blue paper
Purchased through the Julia L. Whittier Fund; D.967.99
Portraiture was a popular genre for finished drawings from the
Renaissance onward. The face has always been an enduring subject
for artists when exploring human emotion, social status, and
individual identity, and portrait drawings were commissioned and
collected as early as the 1470s. They were often valued for
their intimate quality and cherished as souvenirs of personal
associations and public affiliations. Compared to large-scale,
formal, painted representations, drawings could be easily
exchanged and casually displayed. While the conventions and
techniques of finished portraits have varied over the centuries,
they have all shared a desire to portray either the illusion or
the reality of physical likeness and individual personality. By
the middle of the nineteenth century, Thomas Couture was the
most popular artist in France. He was celebrated and idolized by
a generation of French and Americ