Head of a Man

Rather than representing a specific person, this painting is probably an expressive head - a study of the physical manifestation of emotion on a human face. Merry-Joseph Blondel trained as a history painter, and his works would have been evaluated based on the appropriate expressiveness of the figures in his mythological and historical subjects. This man may have served as a model for a heroic figure that remains calm and focused in a tumultuous situation.