This is one of many carefully observed drapery studies by Brown in the collection. The folds of the cardinal's robe are highly finished but the absence of the figure's hands and face suggest that he used a lay figure instead of a model. A lay figure would have had the advantages of being cheaper than a professional model and would have kept the fabric completely still. In the two early compositional studies from 1845 (1906P680 and 1906P681) this figure is an archbishop but later on Brown alters the cleric to a cardinal.
LM