Circa 1863
Fusain sur papier
32 x 25 cm - 12 5/8 x 9 3/16 in.
Collection particulière
Dernière mise à jour : 2022-03-17 19:22:27
Référence : MSb-91
Famille de l'artiste, Montpellier - Collection particulière.
Paris, galerie Wildenstein, 1950, n° 3 [Sous le titre Tête sculptée] - Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, 1978, n° 1, repr. p. 34 - Montpellier, Paris, Washington, 2016-2017, cat. 1, repr. p. 218. [Les références sont du catalogue en français].
Daulte, Frédéric Bazille et son temps, 1952, n° 1, p. 193 [Thèse sous la direction de Gaston Poulain] - Marandel, Cat. exp. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1978, n° 1, repr. p. 34 - Daulte, Frédéric Bazille : Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint, 1992, repr. p. 15 - Schulman, Frédéric Bazille : Catalogue raisonné, 1995, n° 2 des dessins, repr. p. 233 - Hilaire, Jones, Perrin, Catalogue exp. Montpellier, Paris, Washington, 2016-2017, cat. 1, repr. p. 218 [Les références sont du catalogue en français] - Schulman, Frédéric Bazille : Catalogue raisonné numérique, 2022, n° 91.
This study after a plaster statue was probably executed at the same time as the other one, in late 1862 or very early 1863 at the Gleyre studio.
The exercise is admittedly more difficult than the Profile Head. Only the shadows on the neck and chin restitute the model. The artist, through the play of contrasts, has given this face a certain relief.
This drawing can be compared to the Portrait de Madame Salvador-Louis Chérubini by Ingres [Study for The Head of Victory in the Apotheosis of Napoleon I, ceiling of the Hôtel de Ville in Paris, destroyed in 1871. Black pencil drawing: 35 x 27 cm. Bibliography: Henri Lapauze, Ingres, sa vie, son œuvre, Paris, 1911, p. 469 (repr.)]. Bazille, sensitive to his talent and influence, wrote to his parents at the beginning of May 1867 that "Ingres' exhibition is quite interesting..." He would, moreover, return to Ingres's talent in a letter to his cousin Louis Bazille in 1869.
This drawing is a good illustration of the classical tradition that Bazille knew in his early days at the Gleyre studio, and of which Ingres was the most illustrious representative.
