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Sketch of a Spanish Man

Edward Penfield

American Art

In these two works, Edward Penfield used controlled graphite outlines and watercolor washes to detail the tattered clothes and scruffy faces of working men he encountered during a 1906 trip through Spain. The frank realism of his approach gives his images a documentary authenticity; indeed, they were most likely studies for his illustrated travelogue Spanish Sketches (1911). While capitalizing on Americans’ fascination with the picturesque appeal of Spain, Penfield also endowed his subjects with a dignity reflected in their proud bearing.
MEDIUM Watercolor and graphite on medium-weight, off-white, moderately textured, wove paper
DATES 1906
DIMENSIONS sheet: 11 1/2 x 7 3/4 in. (29.2 x 19.7 cm) scrap book: 12 1/4 x 9 1/2 x 2 1/4 in. (31.1 x 24.1 x 5.7 cm)  (show scale)
MARKINGS Stamped in upper left corner of watercolor sheet, in black: "11952"
SIGNATURE Unsigned
INSCRIPTIONS Inscribed in black in on inside of front cover, lower right (border of page near binding): "Penfield Note Book"
COLLECTIONS American Art
ACCESSION NUMBER 61.36.1
CREDIT LINE Gift of the Enoch Pratt Free Library
CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION 61.36.1 (mounted on inside front cover): full-length figure of bearded man in profile, wearing red cap. For 61.36.MN (61.36.1 - .18 watercolor sketches mounted to pages of scrap book, beginning with inside front cover): scrap book with pages bound between cardboard covers decorated with marbleized paper and leather bindings. Label affixed on book cover reads: "SCRAP BOOK / Original drawing by / Edward Penfield for / 'Spanish Sketches' / --Scribner 1911--". Inside the album and following the watercolors are many blank / unused pages; interspersed in remaining pages of scrap book, 7 photographic reproductions mounted to pages, including: reproduction of painting (signed "S W[...?]y") of courtyard scene of young woman with donkey talking to 2 men, several images of men hunting and fishing, including 2 printed with publisher "Hudson & Kearns" (one page inscribed "Shooting + fishing"), photograph of Russian peasant cart with caption "A Peasant's Cart in South Russia / Courtesy of Philadelphia Commercial Mu[?]", and theatrical scene (loose/unmounted, leaved with Russian scene).
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
CAPTION Edward Penfield (American, 1866-1925). Sketch of a Spanish Man, 1906. Watercolor and graphite on medium-weight, off-white, moderately textured, wove paper, sheet: 11 1/2 x 7 3/4 in. (29.2 x 19.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, 61.36.1 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 61.36.1_front_PS2.jpg)
IMAGE front, 61.36.1_front_PS2.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2011
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