Head of a Warrior 

Curator: Here we have Thomas Eakins’s “Head of a Warrior,” a drawing rendered in charcoal and pencil. Editor: The immediate impression is one of quiet strength. The subject's gaze is directed upwards, away from us. It's a compelling, if slightly melancholic, image. Curator: Indeed. What’s fascinating is how Eakins builds form here, observing light and shadow on what seems to be a plaster cast. Notice how the varied strokes create texture, especially around the beard. One sees the hand of the artist at work, coaxing depth and dimension from simple materials. Editor: Absolutely. That upward gaze resonates deeply. Warriors, throughout history, often looked to the heavens for guidance, for strength. And even if this is just a study of a plaster cast, the pose carries centuries of cultural association—linking classical ideals of heroism and stoicism with the subject. Curator: Plaster casts, being cheap to produce and easy to obtain, were very important to academic artists in the nineteenth century. "High" art needed capital like any other form of industrial production, and academic drawing provided a very reproducible means of creating and evaluating artists at all levels of training. Editor: I see what you mean. There's a strong academic influence here, but beyond simple historical association the subject also calls to mind figures like Homer, the great poet of antiquity—a common shorthand, really, for wisdom, contemplation and, perhaps, a little bit of the divine. Curator: A divine production using industrial, human made reproductions. In the end, all roads lead back to considering who had the ability to engage in drawing practice! Editor: An interesting intersection, certainly, of the physical and symbolic. It seems that both form and symbolism have enduring lessons for us. Curator: Yes, the tension and interrelation is itself revealing of art production at the time.