Sheet of Studies: Seated Man, Head of a Dog, Seated Woman

Claude-Joseph Vernet (French, 1714–1789)

1700s

Medium
red chalk (seated man); black chalk (head of a dog); pen and brown ink over black chalk (seated woman)
Classification
Drawing
Dimensions
Sheet: 12.4 x 12.7 cm (4 7/8 x 5 in.)
Culture
France
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art, Drawings
Credit line
Bequest of Nicholas J. Velloney
Rights
Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
Who can see it
Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed

View at the Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

At age 20, Claude-Joseph Vernet traveled to Italy, where he remained for two decades, painting landscape views of the Roman countryside and stormy, imaginary seascapes for Italian aristocrats and wealthy French and British tourists. Vernet populated his paintings with contemporary figures based on sketches from life, such as the three shown here. Drawn at different times in different media, together they form an amusing glimpse of Italian street life in the 1700s.