Portrait of Sleeping Man

Frederic Edwin Church, American, 1826–1900 This ink sketch captures a figure in repose, rendered with Church's characteristic attention to facial anatomy and expression. The artist employs rapid, assured linework to define the subject's weathered features and flowing hair, while looser gestural marks suggest the fabric of the garment. Church's mastery of portraiture—evident in the subtle modeling of form through line alone—reflects the tradition of academic drawing that underpinned his celebrated landscape practice. The sketch demonstrates the artist's ongoing commitment to studying human character and form, a practice central to nineteenth-century artistic training.