Head of a Soldier n.d.

Charles Parrocel created "Head of a Soldier," a drawing rendered in sanguine, sometime between 1688 and 1752. The figure confronts us head-on, his hat casting a shadow that complicates our view. Parrocel's choice of sanguine, a blood-red chalk, is critical. It lends warmth and immediacy to the soldier's face, drawing our attention to the expressive lines that define his features. The hatching and cross-hatching techniques give depth to the composition, setting the soldier against a lightly sketched background. The materiality of the chalk, with its soft, granular texture, suggests a fleeting moment captured in time. Parrocel uses the dynamism of line to imply movement and vitality, challenging the static nature of portraiture. It’s in this tension between the monumental and the momentary that the drawing finds its power, inviting us to consider how representations of authority and strength are always constructed, never fixed.