CMA: Drawings
LightNews LightNews
banner
cmadrawings.bsky.social
CMA: Drawings
@cmadrawings.bsky.social
500 followers 3 following 2.5K posts
Sharing public domain works from the Drawings department of Cleveland Museum of Art.
Automated #artbot thanks to @andreitr.bsky.social and @botfrens.bsky.social
Posts Replies Media Videos
cmadrawings.bsky.social
Verona Sketchbook: (page 102) https://clevelandart.org/art/1952.223.xxxx
Verona Sketchbook: (page 102)
February 11, 2026 at 5:11 PM
cmadrawings.bsky.social
Damask Rose https://clevelandart.org/art/1934.132
Damask Rose
February 11, 2026 at 3:01 PM
cmadrawings.bsky.social
The Laundress https://clevelandart.org/art/1952.113
Toulouse-Lautrec made this drawing as an illustration for an article on "Summer in Paris" published in Paris illustré, a magazine popular among the middle classes. Although the article singled out the laundress as a charming object of the male gaze on the streets of the city, the stooping posture and dark-circled eyes of this figure give her a haggard look that invites comparison with the workhorse behind her. The sharp receding perspective emphasizes the act of street-level spectatorship. A man's top hat visible in the coach behind the woman alludes to her subservient social and sexual role.
February 11, 2026 at 10:56 AM
cmadrawings.bsky.social
Studies of Animals https://clevelandart.org/art/1942.880
Studies of Animals
February 11, 2026 at 9:44 AM
cmadrawings.bsky.social
If they had been victorious - "You Have Two Hours in which to Sign" https://clevelandart.org/art/1925.1185
If they had been victorious - "You Have Two Hours in which to Sign"
February 10, 2026 at 7:17 PM
cmadrawings.bsky.social
Saint Sebastian https://clevelandart.org/art/1958.411
The elegant and graceful Saint Sebastian in this drawing is typical of Perugino's figures, which contemporaries praised for their beauty and adherence to classical ideals. This standard of beauty influenced Perugino's famous pupil, Raphael (1483-1520).
February 10, 2026 at 4:07 PM
cmadrawings.bsky.social
Verona Sketchbook: Figure study (page 72) https://clevelandart.org/art/1952.223.ttt
Verona Sketchbook: Figure study (page 72)
February 10, 2026 at 12:11 PM
cmadrawings.bsky.social
A View of Spa https://clevelandart.org/art/1979.26
A View of Spa
February 10, 2026 at 9:15 AM
cmadrawings.bsky.social
View of Versailles https://clevelandart.org/art/2010.287
View of Versailles
February 9, 2026 at 6:09 PM
cmadrawings.bsky.social
Saint Christopher https://clevelandart.org/art/1956.39
Saint Christopher
February 9, 2026 at 3:31 PM
cmadrawings.bsky.social
Inside the East End of Nettley Abbey https://clevelandart.org/art/2005.199
By the end of the 18th century, Britain’s medieval ruins had become popular tourist destinations and a rich source of inspiration for Romantic poets and painters, establishing a veritable "cult of ruins." Decaying Gothic architecture set in overgrown landscapes conjured thoughts of the transience of human ambition in the context of eternal nature. In 1755, the writer and Whig politician Horace Walpole described Netley Abbey: "The ruins are vast . . . with all variety of Gothic patterns of windows wrapped round and round with ivy-many trees are sprouted up against the walls and want only to be increased with cypresses! In short, they are not the ruins of Netley, but of Paradise." Rooker’s drawing gives form to Walpole’s description of his magical visit to the ruined abbey.
February 9, 2026 at 1:14 PM
cmadrawings.bsky.social
Wild Rose https://clevelandart.org/art/1934.134
Wild Rose
February 9, 2026 at 12:55 PM
cmadrawings.bsky.social
Landscape with Travelers https://clevelandart.org/art/1960.27
A son of Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Jan traveled in Italy in the 1590s and later enjoyed a successful career in Antwerp, where he eventually became court painter to the Hapsburg regents. As a painter, he specialized in floral still lifes and landscapes, sometimes collaborating with his friend Peter Paul Rubens. His drawings, however, are almost exclusively landscapes. Bruegel intended them to be sold as independent works, rather than as preparatory studies for paintings. The date indicated in the lower left corner of this sheet may be correct, but, along with the artist's name it seems to have been added by a later hand.
February 9, 2026 at 9:25 AM
cmadrawings.bsky.social
Sheet of Studies with a Group of Four Figures to the Right (recto) Sketches of Various Figures (verso) https://clevelandart.org/art/1966.179
Sheet of Studies with a Group of Four Figures to the Right (recto) Sketches of Various Figures (verso)
February 8, 2026 at 6:08 PM
cmadrawings.bsky.social
Italian Sketchbook: Venetian Boat (page 29) https://clevelandart.org/art/1951.422.h
Italian Sketchbook: Venetian Boat (page 29)
February 8, 2026 at 5:04 PM
cmadrawings.bsky.social
Militaire a cheval (Soldier on Horseback) https://clevelandart.org/art/2015.445
Militaire a cheval (Soldier on Horseback)
February 8, 2026 at 12:58 PM
cmadrawings.bsky.social
A Rishi Stirring Up a Storm https://clevelandart.org/art/1939.267
In Japanese legend, rishi is the generic name for individuals who have reached immortality through meditation and the following of Taoist teachings. La Farge made this watercolor after an inspiring trip to Japan in 1886.
February 8, 2026 at 12:18 PM
cmadrawings.bsky.social
Hereford Cathedral https://clevelandart.org/art/1987.47
Hereford Cathedral
February 8, 2026 at 9:20 AM
cmadrawings.bsky.social
The Man Wot Drives the Sovereign https://clevelandart.org/art/1940.730
The Man Wot Drives the Sovereign
February 7, 2026 at 6:29 PM
cmadrawings.bsky.social
Studies of a Seated Female, Child's Head, and Three Studies of a Baby https://clevelandart.org/art/1978.37
This drawing is from Raphael’s "pink sketchbook," comprised of ten sheets of roughly equal size portraying a mother and child. Today, six are at the Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille; two are at the British Museum; one is in a private collection; and one is in Cleveland. The small format of the sheets would have enabled the artist to carry the notebook as he traveled from Florence to Rome in 1508. Raphael used metalpoint, a technique popular in 15th-and early 16th-century Italy. As the name implies, metalpoint employed a stylus of soft metal-usually silver or a silver alloy-that left a mark when applied to a specially prepared sheet coated with ground eggshell, powdered bone, or lead white. The rough texture allowed for a deposit of the metal to be left on the surface. The preparation of the ground was often tinted with pigment-here Raphael used pink-so that the delicate gray lines of the metalpoint would stand out. The rigorous technique cannot be erased or effaced, thus demonstrating the artist’s superlative draftsmanship.
February 7, 2026 at 4:34 PM
cmadrawings.bsky.social
Two Figures on a Road https://clevelandart.org/art/1925.1187.b
Two Figures on a Road
February 7, 2026 at 2:06 PM
cmadrawings.bsky.social
Seated Female Nude (Self-Portrait?) https://clevelandart.org/art/1973.35
Although Paula Modersohn-Becker died in 1907, just as the Expressionist groups in Dresden and Munich were forming, the themes of her work prefigure the movement. This likely self-portrait exhibits her desire to convey not the idealized appearance of the female body but rather its fundamental essence, stripped of all the world’s trappings. She distilled the human body into flattened forms—achieved by erasing and blending the charcoal—and abbreviated the delineation of the feet, hands, and face. The sitter’s piercing stare invites the viewer to move beyond the body as flesh and blood toward her emotional or spiritual state.
February 7, 2026 at 10:48 AM
cmadrawings.bsky.social
Japanese Woman Painting a Fan (recto) https://clevelandart.org/art/1933.222.a
In 1872 Whistler was commissioned to contribute two designs to complete the decorative scheme of 35 monumental portrait mosaics installed in the south court of the South Kensington Museum in London (now the Victoria and Albert Museum). A celebration of the arts, the mosaics represented male artists throughout history; Whistler’s two designs attempted to correct the gender imbalance. His subjects were a woman at a spindle and a Japanese woman painting a fan. Here, a brush is poised in the figure’s right hand—notice the sharp diagonal line above the orange butterfly—as she pauses to contemplate the fan she is painting. The commission went unfulfilled, and all that survives is this pastel study.
February 7, 2026 at 9:45 AM
cmadrawings.bsky.social
Man Seated on the Ground, Seen from Behind (recto); Sketch (verso) https://clevelandart.org/art/1929.556
Man Seated on the Ground, Seen from Behind (recto); Sketch (verso)
February 6, 2026 at 6:36 PM
cmadrawings.bsky.social
Verona Sketchbook: Head of a man with hands (page 8) https://clevelandart.org/art/1952.223.h
Verona Sketchbook: Head of a man with hands (page 8)
February 6, 2026 at 4:28 PM