Unknown artist (Roman Period), Portrait of an elderly lady with a gold wreath, 100–125 CE. Encaustic on limewood, H. 34 x W. 18.4 cm (13 3/8 x 7 1/4 in.). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1909. Public domain (CC0).

Portrait of an elderly lady with a gold wreath

Unknown artist (Roman Period), 100–125 CE. Encaustic on limewood.

Front view
Soft light
Painting

Frontal head and shoulders of a gray-haired woman wearing a gold wreath, her lined face modeled in warm browns with the light from the left.

Open in the value study maker

The image is free to use for any purpose: the museum has released it into the public domain.

Value studies

Portrait of an elderly lady with a gold wreath as a study in 2 values — **Notan, 2 values.** Split at value 3.6: 28% of the picture is dark and 72% light.

Portrait of an elderly lady with a gold wreath as a study in 3 values — **3 values.** 21% dark (values 0 to 2.6), 45% middle (2.6 to 5.8) and 34% light (5.8 to 10).

Portrait of an elderly lady with a gold wreath as a study in 5 values — **5 values.** From darkest to lightest: 19%, 15%, 29%, 18% and 19% of the picture.

Split at the picture's natural breaks between light and dark, with Simplify at 5, as in the value study maker. Values run from 0 (black) to 10 (white).

Palette

#141010Value 0.5, neutral
20%
#B19976Value 6.5, warm
14%
#9E7448Value 5.2, warm
14%
#784F2CValue 3.7, warm
12%
#E0C08BValue 7.9, warm
12%
#84694CValue 4.6, warm
12%
#D9B16CValue 7.4, warm
8%
#52341FValue 2.5, warm
7%

The 8 main colors run from value 0.5 to 7.9: 7 warm and 1 neutral. See warm and cool colors for how the labels are worked out.

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