Nude Study of an Old Man
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
Nude Study of an Old Man is a 1852 by Henri Lehmann, a Impressionism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see an old man, naked, sitting on a stool with his back slightly turned. This is a practice sketch—like a rough draft for a bigger mural. The artist was figuring out how to paint shadows on skin. The mural was destroyed in a fire, so this small study is all that’s left of the idea. Look up *chiaroscuro* to see how other artists used light and dark like this.
In preparation for executing largescale paintings, artists often produced studies of individual components of their compositions in order to work through their ideas. Lehmann made this figural study for a mural in the old Hôtel de Ville in Paris, destroyed by fire during the Commune in 1871. Here, the artist explored how to render deep shadows on the nude male body.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Henri Lehmann was a German-born French historical painter and portraitist.
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