Portrait of Edward Stuart

Maker Edmund Ashfield (British, 1669-1690)

ClassificationsDRAWINGS

Daten.d.

Mediumcolored chalks and opaque watercolor on buff laid paper

Dimensions11 3/4 × 8 7/8 in. (29.8 × 22.5 cm.)

MarkingsLabel: On an old label attached to the backboard: 'Portrait of Edward Stuart-/by Edmund Ashfield'

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Purchased partially with funds from the Hill Bequest

Status

Not on view

Label TextIn this portrait, Ashfield uses colored chalk mixed with opaque watercolor to create an image filled with various textures. He harnesses the medium’s friability (crumbliness) in the figure’s hair, in which light, swirling touches are added over a base that has been smoothed with a stump (a tool used for smudging) or finger. Its feathery softness contrasts with the stiff lace stock, its intricate folds described in painstaking detail with opaque white. Ashfield’s careful observation of the sitter’s clothing and features appears in the sparkling silver threads and the highlights in his eyes, which suggest a source of light falling from just slightly off-center (2022).

Object number95.16