1859
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Head of a Bearded Man Gazing to His Left is a 1859 by William Mulready, a Impressionism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see an old man with a thick beard, his face lined like crumpled paper, staring off to the side. This drawing was made when the artist was 73, right there in the same room as his students. The man’s tired eyes and rough skin feel real—like you could reach out and touch the stubble. It’s quiet, but the details pull you in. For more faces that feel this alive, look up sfumato.
For William Mulready, drawing was a lifelong preoccupation. This sheet was drawn from a model in the Royal Academy’s life school when the artist was 73. He was one of the Academy’s most devoted teachers, positioning the model for his students and then drawing alongside them. Closely observed and meticulously crafted, the work attests to Mulready’s consummate skill as a draftsman, and the weather-beaten face of the male model is as arresting today as it was in Victorian London.
This instantly recognizable model was the subject of at least one other drawing, titled Head of an Old Man , in the collection of Tate Britain today.
Read the full account in the museum source.
William Mulready was an Irish genre painter living in London. He is best known for his romanticising depictions of rural scenes, and for creating Mulready stationery letter sheets, issued at the same time as the Penny Black postage stamp.
See the richer artist pageYour cart is empty
Explore artworks →
![Head of a Man [recto]](https://pub-3a17a9933ad74fb28aa30fa758592f23.r2.dev/artworks/d6e68ba78da40efa/thumb.webp)
