1790
charcoal
paper
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
Hands Holding a Sword and a Tricorn is a 1790 charcoal by Anton Graff, a Romanticism work, held at National Gallery of Art.
The painting features a sketch of two hands holding a sword and a tricorn hat. The hands are drawn in charcoal, with the sword and hat rendered in white chalk on brown laid paper. The sketch is loose and expressive, with bold lines and subtle shading. In the background, there are faint outlines of other objects, including what appears to be a star or a sunburst shape. The overall effect is one of dynamic energy and movement, as if the hands are about to spring into action. For more on this style of drawing, explore the Romanticism movement.
Anton Graff (18 November 1736 – 22 June 1813) was a Swiss portrait artist. Among his famous subjects were Friedrich Schiller, Christoph Willibald Gluck, Heinrich von Kleist, Frederick the Great, Friederike Sophie…
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