Head of a woman with her head turned to the left, from Livre de Têtes Gravées d'apres F. Boucher et Autres (Book of Heads Engraved after F. Boucher and Others)
Original title: Head of a woman with her head turned to the left, from Livre de Têtes Gravées d'apres F. Boucher et Autres (Book of Heads Engraved after F. Boucher and Others)
kurzbeschreibung
A woman's head turned to the left in profile fills this eighteenth-century sheet, attributed to an unknown French engraver. The image was made as an etching and then reworked with engraving. What we see is a female head with curly hair adorned with flowers.
Description
Her face is shown in profile, the head slightly turned toward the left. Floral ornament sits in the wavy hair, whose texture is worked out through dense hatching and fine lines. At the shoulder a garment begins to suggest itself, also built from strokes. A plain dark ground surrounds the head and makes it stand forward. Light falling from the right sets shadows and contours on the face.
Context
This sheet dates from the eighteenth century and belongs to the series Livre de Têtes Gravées d'apres F. Boucher et Autres, engraved after designs by François Boucher and other artists. Head studies of this kind were widely popular in France at the time and were prized as model sheets both by draughtsmen and by lovers of drawing. The etching is part of a body of work that displays the range of feminine ideals of the Rococo period.
Impact
Through the delicate lines and the strong play of light and shadow, the sheet takes on a character as elegant as it is familiar. The dark area of the ground directs the gaze to the graceful profile line and the ornamental hair decoration, which gives the image a decorative quality.
Technique
The sheet was made as an etching and afterwards reworked with engraving techniques. Fine lines and hatching correspond to the process in which the drawing is transferred to an etched plate. Trimmed to the plate mark, the print reproduces facial features and hair structure clearly and in detail.
AI-generated description text
Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)