Study for 'Cimabue's Celebrated Madonna...': Female Head

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Drawing details

Title: Study for 'Cimabue's Celebrated Madonna...': Female Head
Date: 1853
Media: Pencil on white paper
Dimensions: 27.3 x 21.6 cm
Location: The Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton, New Brunswick
Picture credit: Gift of Lord Beaverbrook, The Beaverbrook Art Gallery
Reference number: 1959.131
Inscriptions: Inscribed, dated and monographed lower left "Giacinta / Roma / 18 FL 53" in pencil. Inscribed on reverse of backing "Catalogue no.47, Box. No. 4" and "30" in ink.

Interpretation

This drawing is remarkable for its "highly polished style... delicate modelling, and meticulous realism in such details as hair." [Taylor, Mary Cazort, 'Dessins europTens des collections canadiennes, 1500-1900 / European Drawings from Canadian Collections, 1500-1900', The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa,1977, p.47]

Description

Study for the head of the female figure holding a sheet of music, to the left of the painting 'Cimabue's Celebrated Madonna...' (c.1853-55, Royal Collection). 

Provenance

Collection of Mount Allison University in Sackville; purchased from Mount Allison University by Lord Beaverbrook between 1955 and 1958; collection of The Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton, New Brunswick 

Bibliography

• Taylor, Mary Cazort, 'Dessins europTens des collections canadiennes, 1500-1900 / European Drawings from Canadian Collections, 1500-1900', The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa,1977, p.47, illustrated on p.111 

Exhibition history

• 13 January 1977 to 27 February 1977, "European Drawings from Canadian Collections, 1500 - 1900", The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, catalogue number 47