Shadow Drawing project

The invention of drawing

Joseph-Benoît Suvée
Belgian, about 1791
Black and white chalk on brown paper (recto); graphite (verso)
21 1/2 x 14 in.
source: Getty

The story is told by Pliny the Elder (Caius Plinius Secundus, AD 23 – August 24, AD 79) in his work Natural History (Naturalis Historia, circa AD 77 ): a maid of Corinth traced her departing lover’s shadow on a wall and thereby invented art.

Drawing started by extracting from the unstable figure of a shadow the record of a presence as visible memory and remembrance.

The Shadow Drawing project aims at the perception and recording of the human figure as tonal mass. In the present display, two lamps at different angles give compound shadows that require the rendering of the variations of value projected on the white sheet, away from the simple consideration of silhouette.

Student drawing (Madiha Muzaffar)

Figure Drawing Class, AUD