Sketch for a Portrait

Daniel Huntington's ink sketch demonstrates the rapid study methods portrait painters employed in the nineteenth century. Working with economical line work, Huntington captures the essential structure of his subject's face and figure—the tilt of the head, the fall of drapery in the jacket, the gesture of the hands. The loose, confident marks show an artist working quickly to establish compositional relationships before undertaking a finished painting. Such sketches reveal the thinking process behind academic portraiture and the importance of preparatory drawing in studio practice.