Drawing of a Man’s Head with an Unusual Turban (c. 1780): Art, History and Details

Drawing of a Man’s Head with an Unusual Turban (c. 1780) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The painting is a study of a man’s head, perhaps for a finished portrait. It was a common practice among artists to make preparatory sketches of people, to be manifested in later portraits. The artist has rendered the drawing with heavy outline on the eyebrows, eye, and moustache, while soft tones are employed for the modelling of the face.

Object facts

• Title: Drawing of a Man’s Head with an Unusual Turban
• Date: c. 1780
• Culture: Northwestern India, Rajasthan, Rajput Kingdom of Kishangarh
• Type: Painting
• Technique: gum tempera and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Miniature: 22.6 x 16.5 cm (8 7/8 x 6 1/2 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 2018.174

A detail from the museum

The man in the study appears to be a Hindu Rajput noble.

Collection credit

Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.