Study of Thirteen Heads

Jean Jacques de Boissieu

1770 · Etching with drypoint; second state of three · Drawings and Prints

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.

Artist

Jean Jacques de Boissieu

Date

1770

Medium

Etching with drypoint; second state of three

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1967