Costume Study
1852
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
About the artist
Artist
Henri Lehmann
Henri Lehmann was a German-born French historical painter and portraitist.
See the richer artist page1852
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Costume Study is a 1852 by Henri Lehmann, a Romanticism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a man in a long, flowing robe, drawn in careful pencil or chalk. The fabric bunches and sags, casting soft shadows where it folds. This isn’t just a sketch—it’s practice. Artists in the 1800s studied drapery like this to learn how cloth moves with the body. Lehmann worked out every wrinkle before painting large murals in Paris. To see how other artists handled fabric, look up *chiaroscuro*.
Lehmann’s drawing belongs to a pair in which the artist explored a male figure represented in his Hôtel de Ville murals. This sheet examines the relationship between drapery and the body—a traditional object of study during an artist’s training. Lehmann paid particular attention to the undulating texture and shadows formed by the folds of the robe.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Henri Lehmann was a German-born French historical painter and portraitist.
See the richer artist page
![Man Wearing a Cloak [recto]](https://pub-3a17a9933ad74fb28aa30fa758592f23.r2.dev/artworks/6f165c0376318d82/thumb.webp)
![A Venetian Procurator of San Marco [recto]](https://pub-3a17a9933ad74fb28aa30fa758592f23.r2.dev/artworks/2c48af9001688196/thumb.webp)
