Male Head 19th-20th century

Curator: There’s a fragile beauty in Denman Waldo Ross’s “Male Head.” It’s a simple graphite drawing, housed right here at the Harvard Art Museums. Editor: It feels haunted, almost. That delicate shading and those geometric lines around the figure—it's like he's trapped in a dream. Curator: Ross was deeply involved in art education and theories of design. The visible construction lines suggest he was exploring the underlying structure of the face, perhaps as a teaching tool. Editor: Or perhaps he was trying to capture something fleeting—that momentary expression before it vanishes. The incompleteness amplifies the vulnerability. Curator: The lack of a definitive date adds to the mystery, doesn't it? It could be from any point in his career. The work reminds us that art is a process, not just a product. Editor: I think so, too. It's less about the finished portrait and more about the intimate act of seeing, of trying to understand another human.