Watteau to Degas: French Drawings from the Frits Lugt Collection
October 6, 2009, through January 10, 2010
Antoine Watteau (1684–1721)
Studies of Seven Heads
c. 1717–18
Red, black, and white chalk, graphite
Studies of Seven Heads records the presence of three models: the beautiful, oval-faced girl in a narrow-strapped dress, seen in four different poses in the upper register; a square-faced girl with dark hair and the hint of a necklace, at lower left; and a young man with luxuriant eyelashes, whose head is studied twice. Despite the multiplicity of models, this drawing was probably made in a single session, rather than returned to over a period of time. Some of the heads can be associated with figures in the second version of Watteau’s Embarkation to Cythera in Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin, painted for Jean de Julienne around 1717–18. |
