Head Study for "The Entombment of Christ"
Henri Regnault French
Dedicatee Juliette Reiset French
Inscriber Henri Victor Regnault French
Not on view
Regnault produced this drawing as part of his process to prepare an ambitious work for the Salon of 1865, "The Entombment of Christ." Ultimately, he chose not to exhibit the work and it remained unfinished in his studio in Sèvres, where it was destroyed during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. Regnault died serving as a foot soldier in that same conflict. His father, a self-taught scientist and pioneering photographer, dedicated this drawing to the wife of his friend and scientific collaborator, Jules de Reiset, who cared for him following a stroke in 1873. As a study for the head of the dead Christ, it was a poignant gift from a father grieving the death of his son.
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