1650
chalk
paper
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
An Allegorical Female Figure is a 1650 chalk by French 17th Century, a Baroque work, held at National Gallery of Art.
This sketch shows a woman floating mid-air, one arm stretched up as if holding something, the other bent at her side. Her hair is wild, her face calm but intense, and her body wrapped in flowing cloth that looks like it’s moving with her. The background is rough, with quick strokes of red and gray that suggest clouds or smoke. The artist used soft chalk and white highlights to make her glow against the dark background. This kind of lighting—dark shadows and bright spots—was a big deal in the 1600s. Look up chiaroscuro to see how this trick works.
Seventeenth-century French printmakers turned ink into story. Their tools were burin and acid, paper their stage. Look at the Beggar Woman with Rosary (1622), etched on laid paper, her hands folded around faith, or The…
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