Three Grotesque Bust Portraits (54e-g)
Caricatured aged heads and shoulders in profile
The sheet gathers three pen-and-ink grotesque busts, labelled 54e, 54f and 54g, each exaggerating the ravages of age with sunken toothless mouths, heavy brows and creased skin. All three are shown in profile, wearing veils, caps or bound headdresses over the shoulders. The drawings are caricature studies of human physiognomy rather than portraits of named sitters, and carry no text.
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Veiled grotesque bust in profile (54e)
A bust faces right, the head covered by a draped veil that hangs to the shoulders. The face shows a collapsed, toothless mouth and a jutting chin, and the body is clad in a bodice indicated with fine hatching.
Grotesque with wind-blown hair (54f)
An aged grotesque faces left with hair streaming back from the head as if blown by wind. The profile has an overhanging brow, a hollow mouth and a sharp chin, above a garment fastened at the breast.
Capped grotesque profile (54g)
A bust faces left wearing a soft banded cap wrapped around the head. The face is heavily caricatured with a bulbous nose, protruding lips and deep folds, and the shoulders are rendered in dense cross-hatching.