This vertical charcoal and chalk drawing shows the head and shoulders of a light-skinned, elderly woman facing our left almost in profile. Light from our left falls across her jowled, deeply wrinkled face. She looks off to our left with clear, deep-set eyes under a raised brow. She has a long, bulbous nose, and her wide mouth is closed, her thin lips set. Her hair is covered by a long scarf tied at the base of her head, and one end falls over the shoulder closer to us. There appears to be a kerchief wrapped around her neck, and a loose-fitting jacket is buttoned all the way up. She is shown…
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An Elderly Peasant Woman

Léon Augustin Lhermitte (French, 1844 - 1925)

c. 1878

Medium
charcoal with black chalk, with stumping, scraping erasing and wetting, on wove paper
Classification
Drawing
Dimensions
overall: 47.5 x 39.6 cm (18 11/16 x 15 9/16 in.)
Culture
French
Museum
National Gallery of Art, CG-E
Credit line
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. James T. Dyke
Rights
Public domain (NGA Open Access, 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 National Gallery of Art