Head of a Man in Profile

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's "Head of a Man in Profile" is a pen and ink drawing on ivory laid paper, a rapid study of a male head in profile. The pen and ink medium demands confidence and precision—every stroke is permanent, and there is no room for erasure or correction. Lautrec's line is characteristically bold and economical, the profile captured with a few swift strokes that define the features and the character of the sitter. The ivory laid paper provides a smooth, warm ground. The identity of the sitter is unknown—he may be a friend, a fellow artist, or one of the many characters Lautrec encountered in the cafés and theaters of Montmartre. The drawing's simplicity and directness are typical of Lautrec's approach to portraiture: he was less interested in academic finish than in capturing the essential character of his subject. This profile study, for all its apparent simplicity, reveals the sharp eye and confident hand of an artist who had made the observation of human character his life's work.

Lautrec's rapid pen-and-ink portrait studies demonstrate his extraordinary ability to capture character with the minimum of means, a skill that made him one of the greatest portraitists of his generation.

This rapid pen and ink profile captures the character of an anonymous sitter with remarkable economy, the confident line revealing Lautrec's gift for capturing the essence of a face with a few strokes.