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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)
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
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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.
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