Profile of a woman

Luigi Nono's 'Profile of a Woman' (1889) belongs to his figure study subjects — the female profile as an exercise in form and character that had a long tradition in portraiture and academic figure painting. The profile view was associated with classical medallion portraiture but also with the intimate observation of a person unaware of being watched — the profile capturing a different dimension of character from the direct gaze of frontal portraiture. Nono's late career figure subjects show increasing sophistication in his exploration of psychological complexity.

Nono renders the female profile with careful attention to the specific features visible from the side — the line of the forehead, nose, and chin, the particular form of the ear, the hair's arrangement against the back of the head. His academic technique provides precise drawing of these profile-specific features within a tonal modeling that gives the face its three-dimensional presence. The profile creates a composition of elegant formal simplicity.