Photos: Jonathan Russell.

• Title(s): The head of a young man (drawing) (this web site).
• Description: a finely executed drawing of a man’s head in near profile, turned slightly towards the viewer, wearing a hat and scarf, clean shaven.
• Media: pencil on paper.
• Dimensions: approximately A4 (29.7 x 21) size.
• Signature/date/other text: fragment of label bottom right “…HESTER. / …al Institution). / … fd / …” (‘fd’ handwritten, rest of text printed).
• History:
  • 1870s – According to information displayed by the drawing while on display Manchester Art Gallery, 2018-2019.
  • 2018 Feb 23 to 2019 Jan 6 – Exhibited Manchester Art Gallery – Painting Light and Hope.
• Location: private collection.

Notice by drawing while on display at Manchester Art Gallery Painting Light and Hope exhibition, 23 Feb 2018 – 6 Jan 2019:

Pencil on paper … This is a rare drawing from the 1870s, produced when Swynnerton was a student at Manchester School of Art. It illustrates her early skill in figure study. The subject may be a life model or someone Swynnerton knew. It could be her future husband, Joseph Swynnerton, which might explain the work’s survival.

A photograph of Joseph Swynnerton in his middle years show him to have had a near straight, very slightly concave nasal bridge, not noticeably convex (‘hooked’) as in the above drawing. According to Master and Man (portrait of Mr. Swynnerton) his nose did become slightly convex at the upper bridge bone-cartilage junction in his later years.

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Page last updated 21 May 2025.