
As One Came Near with Curl'd Gray Beard, Sharp Eyes, and Smooth Bald Crown
Will Hicock Low · 1885
- Medium
- Black, gray and white gouache, with traces of black chalk, on cream wood-pulp laminate board
- Original size
- 45.9 × 35.5 cm (18 1/8 × 14 in.)
- Currently held
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Movement
- Impressionism
This intimate character study, rendered in restrained tones of black, gray, and white, captures the weathered dignity of an unnamed elder with remarkable economy of means. Will Hicock Low was one of the most accomplished American illustrators and decorative painters of the late nineteenth century, trained in Paris under Jean-Léon Gérôme and deeply influenced by the French academic tradition. His facility with gouache — a medium demanding precision and confidence, with little room for correction — is on full display here, where layered washes build form and texture with a quiet authority. The descriptive title, reading almost like a line of verse, points to Low's close connections with the literary world of his era and his habit of treating illustration as a serious artistic endeavor equal to fine art. Low was a close personal friend of Robert Louis Stevenson and produced celebrated illustrations for several of his works, placing this study squarely within a career defined by the intersection of image and word. Our hand-painted oil reproduction translates Low's original tonal subtlety into the richer, more luminous language of oil on canvas, preserving the intimacy and quiet intensity of the source work while giving it a physical presence suited to any considered interior.
Hand-painted oil reproduction
Painted in real oil on stretched canvas by master copyists. Delivered unframed — ready to frame at home.
Choose a size
In Low's style.
Send us a photograph of your family, pet, or home — we'll paint it as a custom oil on stretched canvas in any style you like. From £220.

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