Studies of Women's Heads

1680s or 1690s

Michel Corneille

Associated Names
Michel Corneille

Artist, French, 1642 - 1708

This image shows detailed drawings of multiple young women's faces with partial necks visible. The women face various directions with delicate facial features, soft expressions, and gentle smiles. They have large, expressive eyes and varying hairstyles, some with headbands or ornaments. One woman wears an earring. The artwork is on a textured background, likely paper.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    black and red chalk heightened with white chalk on light brown laid paper, with later framing line in brown ink

  • Credit Line

    Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund

  • Dimensions

    overall: 28.8 x 18.7 cm (11 5/16 x 7 3/8 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1986.16.1

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(sale, Christies, London, 11-13 December 1985, no. 171); acquired by National Gallery of Art.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

2009

  • Renaissance to Revolution: French Drawings from the National Gallery of Art, 1500-1800. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2009, 76-77, 279, no. 29 (color).

Bibliography

1998

  • Clark, Alvin L., Jr. Mastery and Elegance: Two Centuries of French Drawings from the Collection of Jeffrey E. Horvitz. Exh. cat. Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, MA, et al. Cambridge, 1998: 364, no. 24, note 2 (entry by Margaret Morgan Grasselli).

Inscriptions

by the artist across the bottom in black chalk: le nez Et le visage un peu Court

Wikidata ID

Q64614693

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