1828
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Dominant colour
A Portrait of Welby Sherman Asleep in a Chair is a 1828 by George Richmond, a Romanticism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
A young man dozes in a wooden chair, jacket buttoned, cravat still tied. His head tilts forward, lips slightly parted. This is Welby Sherman, an artist friend of the painter, caught mid-nap—maybe after dinner, as the inscription jokes. The drawing uses soft pencil shading to shape his face, with tiny dashes of dark wash for eyelashes and a faint pink tint on his lips. For more quiet portraits like this, look up subject: england, 19th century.
George Richmond’s study of his friend, the dozing artist, Welby Sherman, was endearingly inscribed, "As he may be seen after dinner." Dressed in a cravat and jacket and seated in a hard-backed chair, Sherman has momentarily drifted off, perhaps during a lull in friendly conversation. Minute touches of black wash define the bridge of his nose, eyelashes, and brow, and exquisitely subtle graphite hatching expresses the soft curves of the youthful sitter’s features. Touches of pink wash on the lips and cheek breathe life into the figure.
Both George Richmond and Welby Sherman belonged to a group of artists who called themselves the Ancients, who looked to the Middle Ages for inspiration and celebrated the divine in nature.
Read the full account in the museum source.
George Richmond (28 March 1809 – 19 March 1896) was an English painter and portraitist.
See the richer artist page
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