• Additional view of object
  • Additional view of object
Nov 16, 2012
Oct 28, 2008

Head of a Boy Singing (Study for Music)

Head of a Boy Singing (Study for Music)

c. 1898

Luc-Olivier Merson

(French, 1846–1920)

France, 19th century

Black, white, and red chalk with stumping, pricked for transfer

Support: Light brown wove paper

Sheet: 39.6 x 27.2 cm (15 9/16 x 10 11/16 in.)

Bequest of Muriel Butkin 2008.394

Location

not on view

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Did you know?

The face of the boy in this drawing is pricked extensively so that the image could be transferred directly to the final painting for which it was a study. The two works differ only in the addition of a hat on the boy's head in the final work.

Description

This sheet was a preparatory study for the face of a singing boy who appears near the center of Music, a mural decorating the left grand staircase at the Théâtre National de l’Opéra-Comique in Paris. Drawn from life with exquisite naturalism, Luc-Olivier Merson captured the sitter’s youthful beauty with such clarity that the purity of the boy’s voice seems to emanate from the drawing.

See also
Collection: 
Drawings
Department: 
Drawings
Type of artwork: 
Drawing
Medium: 
Black, white, and red chalk with stumping, pricked for transfer
Credit line: 
Bequest of Muriel Butkin

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