Lot Essay
This sensitive study of an old man depicts him with his neck dramatically angled forward. His grizzled face has sunken cheeks, sagging flesh and protruding cheek bones and brow ridges. He has a short, unruly beard and a thick mustache, his open mouth revealing two upper teeth. His abundant hair is summarily rendered, with the top of his head once finished in a separate section, now-missing.
For the position of the head, compare the bronze figure of an old laborer, fig. 69 in S.B. Matheson and J.J. Pollitt, Old Age in Greek and Roman Art. The authors inform that “In some works of art, old men and women appear as laborers or disadvantaged people with bent backs and ragged clothing. Such images can be of high quality and reveal deep sympathy for the subjects by depicting them with expressive poses and gestures, and with carefully rendered signs of age — the weight of the world seems to be on their shoulders. These figures have a presence, a pathos, that evokes empathy in viewers..." (op. cit., p. 119).
For the position of the head, compare the bronze figure of an old laborer, fig. 69 in S.B. Matheson and J.J. Pollitt, Old Age in Greek and Roman Art. The authors inform that “In some works of art, old men and women appear as laborers or disadvantaged people with bent backs and ragged clothing. Such images can be of high quality and reveal deep sympathy for the subjects by depicting them with expressive poses and gestures, and with carefully rendered signs of age — the weight of the world seems to be on their shoulders. These figures have a presence, a pathos, that evokes empathy in viewers..." (op. cit., p. 119).