Man in Profile Looking Upward, Color Facsimile of a Chalk Drawing, circa 1900
€ 135
Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)
Date
circa 1900
Mapmaker / artist
Unsigned color facsimile; closely follows a Holbein chalk study in Basel
Publisher
Not named on the sheet
Technique
Photogravure
Coloring
Printed color
Sheet size
34 × 25 cm (13.4 × 9.8 in)
Condition
Good
Reference
BG-14343-60
What the condition grades mean
Excellent
Bright and clean, with no faults worth mentioning.
Very good
Only light signs of age, such as faint toning.
Good
Normal signs of age for a sheet of this period: toning, some foxing, small marks or neat old repairs.
Fair
Clear faults such as staining, tears or repairs, priced to match.
Every fault we see is written in the condition note, and the whole sheet is shown uncropped in the photos.
Condition
Good condition for its age. Heavy foxing to the mount margins; crease to the upper left corner and wear to the corners and edges. The image itself is clean. Please review the images for further condition details.
About this sheet
This color facsimile reproduces a Renaissance portrait drawing of a man in strict profile to the right, his eyes lifted as if in prayer. He has a heavy, fleshy face, a strong nose, a firm mouth and dark hair cut straight in a full bob, and he wears a pale garment with a loose open collar. The head is modeled with great subtlety in black and colored chalks on a gray green ground, with soft shading along the cheek and jaw, a warm touch of red at the lips and fine dark accents at the eye and nostril, while the shoulders are only lightly outlined. The image is printed within a plate mark on a sheet laid down on a larger support.
The sheet carries no lettering of any kind. The composition closely follows a chalk portrait study by Hans Holbein the Younger in the Kunstmuseum Basel, a drawing of a kneeling donor made in preparation for a votive altarpiece, and nothing on this sheet departs from that drawing in pose, costume or handling.
Holbein's portrait drawings are among the supreme achievements of Renaissance draftsmanship. Working in Basel in the 1510s and 1520s and later in London at the court of Henry VIII, he developed a method of drawing his sitters in black and colored chalks, often on prepared tinted paper, which allowed him to record a face with extraordinary economy and truth before working up the painted portrait. The Kunstmuseum Basel holds the largest collection of his drawings, and the profile studies for his religious commissions are among the most admired of them.
Around 1900 several publishers in Germany and Switzerland issued high quality photomechanical facsimiles of Renaissance drawings, printed in color so that the tinted grounds and chalks of the originals could be studied and enjoyed far from the museums that held them. This sheet carries no publisher's lettering. It is a refined and quietly powerful image, ideal for a collector of Renaissance portraiture or of Holbein in particular, and it frames beautifully with a wide mat.
This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.
