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Jun 13, 2012

Woman Standing among the Friars (recto) Sketches of Heads (verso, left); Two Women (verso, right)

c. 1770–75

Part of a set. See all set records

John Brown

(British, 1752–1787)

England, 18th century

Graphite and gray and black wash with point of brush

Image: 25.8 x 36.9 cm (10 3/16 x 14 1/2 in.)

Dudley P. Allen Fund 1969.28

Location

not on view

Did you know?

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.

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.

Provenance

?-?

(William Young Ottley, London)

?-1830

Sir Thomas Lawrence [1769-1830], London

1830

(sale, Christie's, June 17, 1830, no. 99, purchased by Russell)

1830-?

Russell

?-?

Private Collection, Paris

?-1969

(Eugene V. Thaw and Co., New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH)

1969-

Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Todd, Ruthven. Tracks in the Snow. London: Grey Walls Press, 1946. Mentioned: pp. 87-88

Chefs-d'oeuvre des collections Parisiennes. Exh. Cat. Paris: Musée Carnavalet, 1950. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 45, no. 92

Powell, Nicholas. "Brown and the Women of Rome." Signature: A Quadrimestrial of Typography and Graphic Arts, no. 14 (1952). Mentioned: p. 42; Reproduced: facing page

Lee, Sherman E.. "The Year in Review for 1969." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 57, no. 1 (January 1970): 2-50. Reproduced: p.19, no. 157; Mentioned: p. 48, no. 157 www.jstor.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 194 archive.org

Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century British Watercolours and Drawings. London: Sotheby's,1981. Mentioned: p. 66, under no. 73

Calvini, Anna Ottani. "Inglesi in Italia nel secolo XVIII: Benjamin West, James Barry, John Brown, John Flaxman." In Pittori europei in Italia: Pittori italiani in Europa. Milan: Edizioni Angelo Guerinie Associati, 1990. Mentioned: pp. 59-81, 76, no. 9; Reproduced: p. 76, no. 9

Upstone, Robert. Sketchbooks of the Romantics. Secaucus, NJ: Wellfleet Press, 1991. Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 174-75

Craske, Matthew. Art in Europe, 1700-1830: A History of the Visual Arts in an Era of Unprecedented Urban Economic Growth. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 256, no. 117

Macmillan, Duncan. Scottish Art, 1460-2000. Edinburgh: Mainstream Pub, 2000. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 128, no. 103

Bowron, Edgar Peters and Joseph J. Rishel. Art in Rome in the Eighteenth Century. Exh. Cat. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2000. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 480, no. 323

Exhibition history

Chefs-d'oeuvre des collections parisiennes. Musée Carnavalet, Paris (November - December, 1950).

The Splendor of 18th-Century Rome. Philadelphia Museum of Art (March 16 - May 28, 2000); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (June 25 - September 17, 2000).

Year in Review: 1969. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 27-February 22, 1970).

The Poetical Circle: Fuseli and the British. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia (April 24-May 27, 1979); Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Austria (June 5-July 29, 1979); Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia (organizer) (September 1-27, 1979); Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand, Auckland, New Zealand (October 24-November 25, 1979).

Northern European Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 16, 1982-January 9, 1983).

The Birth and Flowering of British Romantic Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 1-July 22, 1990).

British Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art . The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 10-May 26, 2013).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=Woman Standing among the Friars (recto) Sketches of Heads (verso, left); Two Women (verso, right)|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1969.28|author=John Brown|year=c. 1770–75|access-date=11 December 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Woman Standing among the Friars (recto) Sketches of Heads (verso, left); Two Women (verso, right)

Woman Standing among the Friars (recto) Sketches of Heads (verso, left); Two Women (verso, right)

John Brown

Location

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Description

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