Attention

Description

Downman’s drawings appear in the same direction as (and likely reproduce) Jean Audran’s large-scale 1727 etchings after Le Brun. The accompanying text describes the expression of attention thusly: “The effects of attention are to lower and contract the eyebrows toward the sides of the nose, to turn the pupils toward the object that causes (the emotion), to open the mouth, and above all, the top lip, to lower the head little and to keep it steady without other notable changes.”

Attention

John Downman

n.d.

Accession Number

109136

Medium

Charcoal with stumping on cream laid paper

Dimensions

38.3 × 27.3 cm (15 1/8 × 10 3/4 in.)

Classification

charcoal

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

The Leonora Hall Gurley Memorial Collection