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Studies of a Seated Female, Child's Head, and Three Studies of a Baby
by Raphael
Also known as: Studies of the Virgin and Child
About the Artwork
This drawing is from Raphael’s "pink sketchbook," comprised of ten sheets of roughly equal size that each portray variations of a mother and child. Today, six of the drawings 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 on a pink prepared surface. The pose of the infant's head in the drawing was based on that of the Christ child in Leonardo da Vinci's Benois Madonna, then in a private collection in Florence, with changes—such as the uplifted eyes and open mouth—made by Raphael. The curving back of the female nude is echoed in the roundness of the child's head. The three sketches of a reclining infant at the bottom of the sheet are freely handled and improvisational, relaying the child's squirming, continuous movement with repeated contour lines.
Inscriptions
lower right, in brown ink: 74
Provenance
around 1839: Pietro Benvenuti, Florence, 1769-1844 -around 1870: Grand Duke of Tuscany (probably Leopold II, died 1870) around 1922: possibly by descent, to Emperor Charles I of Austria ?-?: Stefan von Licht, Vienna, 1880-1932 1930: Edwin Czeczowiczka, Vienna and London, 1877-1971. His sale, Boerner and Graupe, Berlin 12 May 1930, lot 121 around 1930-?: with Colnaghi, London 1978: Robert von Hirsch, Basel, d. 1977. His sale, Sotheby's, London, 20 June 1978, lot 16. 1978-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Exhibition history
Italian Drawings with von Hirsh Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (September 15-December 4, 1978). Year in Review: 1978. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 13-March 18, 1979). The Draftsman's Eye: Late Italian Renaissance Schools and Styles. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 6-April 22, 1979). Idea to Image: Preparatory Studies from the Renaissance to Impressionism. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 19-March 23, 1980). Connoisseurship in Italian Figural Compositions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 21, 1980-February 15, 1981). National Schools of Style. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 14-September 18, 1983). Italian Drawings from the Permanent Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 16, 1986-March 1, 1987). Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002). Raphael and His Age: Drawings from the Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille [FRAME]. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 25-November 3, 2002). Treasures on Paper from the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 9-June 8, 2014). Stories from Storage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 7-May 16, 2021). Raphael: Sublime Poetry. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (March 23-June 28, 2026) https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/raphael-sublime-poetry.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Raphael (Italian, 1483–1520)
- Date
- c. 1507–8
- Medium
- metalpoint
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 12 x 15.3 cm (4 3/4 x 6 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
- Accession no.
- 1978.37
More by Raphael in museum collections
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 7, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00000330
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