Nude sleeping boy

Ludovico Carracci 1555 - 1619

Summary

A reproduction produced by the Vasari Society of a drawing by Ludovico Carracci. The drawing is in red chalk, and shows a nude boy, sleeping. He is reclining with his feet closest to the viewer, his knees spread apart. His left arm is bent up behind his head, and his right hand rests on his chest. Text from the accompanying booklet produced by the Vasari Society: "10. LODOVICO CARRACCI (b. 1555; d. 1619) NUDE SLEEPING BOY Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Presented to the University by Francis, first Earl of Ellesmere, 1853. From the Houlditch and Lawrence Collections. Red chalk on paper originally cream-coloured. 23.8 x 22.5 cm. (9 5/16 x 8 7/8 in.). A strong and competent academic study of a difficult pose; the structure of the body admirably felt, but perhaps wanting in actual distinction. The drawing has been cut down and pasted on to a larger sheet of paper, portions of the shading on the margin being added at this time. When the Lawrence Collection was broken up into sections, and exhibited by the Woodburns, Lord Ellesmere bought the whole of the Carracci section. He kept most of the finest studies which still hang in frames at Bridgewater House. Sixty-eight of the most interesting landscapes and life-studies he had bound up in a volume which he gave to the University. W. B."