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Study of Thirteen Heads

1770
Not on view
Boissieu's graphic oeuvre includes several sketch plates such as this one, where an etching needle was used to draw independent sketches directly onto a prepared copper plate. A format originally associated with the learning process and an artist's initial forays into the medium, the sketch plate became, in the hands of Rembrandt and his eighteenth-century emulators, a vehicle for virtuosity. Here, Boissieu covered the plate with sketches, mostly of old men, juxtaposing heads drawn to different scales and with different degrees of finish.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Study of Thirteen Heads
  • Artist: Jean Jacques de Boissieu (French, Lyons 1736–1810 Lyons)
  • Date: 1770
  • Medium: Etching with drypoint; second state of three
  • Dimensions: Sheet: 9 7/16 × 7 3/16 in. (24 × 18.3 cm)
    Plate: 9 1/4 × 7 1/16 in. (23.5 × 17.9 cm)
  • Classification: Prints
  • Credit Line: The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1967
  • Object Number: 67.793.25
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

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Seated Man with a Pitcher and a Glass, Jean Jacques de Boissieu French, Brush and black ink with gray wash., French
Seated Man with a Pitcher and a Glass
Jean Jacques de Boissieu
Former Attribution Jean-Baptiste Greuze
1756–1810
Guitar, Jean-Baptiste Voboam French, Spruce, tortoiseshell, mother-of-pearl, ivory, ebony, French
Guitar
attributed to Jean-Baptiste Voboam
1697
Imaginary View of Venice, houses at left with figures on terraces, a domed church at center in the background, boats and boat-sheds below, and a seated man observing from a wall at right in the foreground, from "Views" (Vedute altre prese da i luoghi altre ideate da Antonio Canal), Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canal) Italian, Etching; undivided plate, only state
Imaginary View of Venice, houses at left with figures on terraces, a domed church at center in the background, boats and boat-sheds below, and a seated man observing from a wall at right in the foreground, from "Views" (Vedute altre prese da i luoghi altre ideate da Antonio Canal)
Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canal)
Dedicatee Joseph Smith
1741
Portrait, after Van Dyck, Jean Jacques de Boissieu French, Etching; fourth state of five
Portrait, after Van Dyck
Jean Jacques de Boissieu
After Anthony van Dyck
1770
Ceramic Horn, Glazed pottery, French
Ceramic Horn
French
late 18th or early 19th century

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