Young Man Holding Statuette

John Russell · 1760

Medium

Charcoal and black chalk, heightened with white gouache, on cream laid paper, laid down on tan wove paper

Original size

52 × 37.4 cm (20 1/2 × 14 3/4 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Rococo

Rendered with a quiet intensity that feels both intimate and monumental, *Young Man Holding Statuette* captures the studied stillness of a figure caught mid-thought, the sculptural object in his hands suggesting an interest in art, antiquity, or both. John Russell worked in the tradition of 18th-century academic draughtsmanship, and this sheet exemplifies the technical rigour demanded of serious practitioners at the time. The combination of charcoal and black chalk, lifted with white gouache, was a method widely used to build volume and luminosity without colour — creating the illusion of three-dimensional form through tonal contrast alone. On cream laid paper, the warm ground does much of the work, sitting as a mid-tone between the darkest shadows and the brightest highlights. The drawing's survival in laid-down form, mounted on a secondary support, points to the care taken by collectors and institutions to preserve works on paper that were never intended to outlast their creators. The hand-painted oil reproduction translates that careful interplay of light and shadow into a new medium, honouring the delicacy of Russell's draughtsmanship while giving the image a physical presence suited to the wall.