Loading
Head of a Boy Singing (Study for Music)
Luc-Olivier Mersonc. 1898
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States
This sheet was a preparatory study for the face of a singing boy who appears near the center of <em>Music</em>, 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.
Show lessRead more
Download this artwork (provided by The Cleveland Museum of Art).
Learn more about this artwork.
Details
- Title: Head of a Boy Singing (Study for Music)
- Creator: Luc-Olivier Merson (French, 1846-1920)
- Date Created: c. 1898
- Physical Dimensions: Sheet: 39.6 x 27.2 cm (15 9/16 x 10 11/16 in.)
- Provenance: (Galerie Jacques Fischer-Chantal Kiener, Paris, sold to Muriel Butkin, Shaker Heights, OH), Muriel Butkin [1916-2008], Shaker Heights, OH, by bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- Type: Drawing
- Rights: CC0
- External Link: https://clevelandart.org/art/2008.394
- Medium: black, white, and red chalk with stumping, pricked for transfer
- Inscriptions: signed, center right, in black chalk: L. O. M; lower left, in graphite: 33 40
- Fun Fact: 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.
- Department: Drawings
- Culture: France, 19th century
- Credit Line: Bequest of Muriel Butkin
- Collection: Drawings
- Accession Number: 2008.394
Get the app
Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more
You are all set!
Your first Culture Weekly will arrive this week.