Lot Essay
Another drawing by Charles Landseer of the same écorché head is in the Wellcome Library. The Wellcome study is dated 18 July 1815 (see L. Price Anderson Jun., 'Catalogue des moulages [casts] conservés á la Royal Academy of Arts de Londres', L'écorché: expérience pédagogique á l'Ecole Régionale des Beaux-Arts de Rouen, cahier no. 3, November 1976, pp. 13-33, fig. 4, and in I. Bignamini and M. Postle (eds.), The Artist's Model, Its Role in British Art from Lely to Etty, Nottingham 1991, no. 78, pp. 88-89). The Royal Academy has a copy of Edmé Bouchardon's écorché figure.
The drawing of the upper body is closely related in style to two large sheets in the Wellcome Library (562 55R and 576330i). The first of these Wellcome drawings is signed and dated 'C Landseer April 28th 181[? 5 or 8]/Windmill', indicating that it was made in the Great Windmill Street School of anatomy run by Charles Bell from 1809.
The drawing of the upper body is closely related in style to two large sheets in the Wellcome Library (562 55R and 576330i). The first of these Wellcome drawings is signed and dated 'C Landseer April 28th 181[? 5 or 8]/Windmill', indicating that it was made in the Great Windmill Street School of anatomy run by Charles Bell from 1809.