Five Sketches of Heads n.d.

"Five Sketches of Heads" is a pen and brown ink drawing by Samuel Drummond, created sometime in the late 18th or early 19th century. Drummond lived in a period where physiognomy, the assessment of a person's character based on their facial features, was a popular, pseudoscientific practice. The contrast between the idealized, classical profiles at the top and the more individualized, expressive faces below is striking. The upper figures, with their refined features and serene expressions, evoke a sense of timeless beauty, embodying the aesthetic values of the era. The lower sketches, however, capture a range of emotions. The figure at the bottom appears distraught. Drummond’s sketches invite us to consider how identity is constructed, both by the individual and by society. How do these sketches reflect, or challenge, the assumptions of their time about beauty, class, and emotional expression? And how do they resonate with our own perceptions of identity today?