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Six head studies of young women and men are portrayed in various angles and profiles in a semi-circle around.

Clockwise from lower left a slightly portly woman looks up to the left. Top left the same woman with chin up looks right. Top right a man’s face looks slightly down. Middle right a lady’s head turns right in profile, we see side of her neck and cap unturned in the back. In lower right a man looks down and slightly left, his forehead and black hair are prominent. In the middle the lady wearing a cap looks to the right, her face drawn in three-quarter view. The faces have delicate and accurate details while hair, neck, have less detail

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1965.336
People
Jean-Antoine Watteau, French (Valenciennes 1684 - 1721 Nogent-sur-Marne)
Title
Six Head Studies
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
c. 1715
Culture
French
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/296452

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Red, white, and black chalk on light tan antique laid paper
Dimensions
22.2 x 21.7 cm (8 3/4 x 8 9/16 in.)
frame: 39.4 x 38.7 x 4.4 cm (15 1/2 x 15 1/4 x 1 3/4 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • watermark:
  • inscription:

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Captain Edward George Spencer-Churchill, Northwick Park, Blockley, Gloucestershire (by 1913); to his cousin, Lord Ivor Charles Spencer-Churchill, London and Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, by descent; Durlacher Brothers, New York, sold; to Paul J. Sachs, Cambridge (by 1927); Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Meta and Paul J. Sachs, inv. no. 1965.336

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Meta and Paul J. Sachs
Accession Year
1965
Object Number
1965.336
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Charles Ricketts, “Antoine Watteau (b. 1684; d. 1721): Sheet of Six Studies of Heads", The Vasari Society for the Reproduction of Drawings by Old Masters, Oxford University Press (UK) (Oxford, 1913-1914), vol. 9, cat. no. 27, n.p.
  • Karl T. Parker, The Drawings of Antoine Watteau, B.T. Batsford Ltd. (London, 1931), cat. no. 86, p. 48
  • Margaret Scott, An Exhibition of Old-Master Drawings for the Benefit of Public Health Nursing Milk and Emergency Fund, exh. cat., Junior League (Pittsburgh, 1933), cat. no. 11, pp. 11-13
  • Agnes Mongan, “French Drawings and Prints of the Eighteenth Century: A Loan Exhibition", Bulletin of the Fogg Art Museum, Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, 1934), vol. 3, no. 2, March, pp. 5-9, p. 6
  • Agnes Mongan and Paul J. Sachs, Drawings in the Fogg Museum of Art, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, 1940), vol. 1, cat. no. 641, pp. 340-41, vol. 3, n.p.
  • Winslow Ames, "Drawings in the Fogg", Magazine of Art, American Federation of Arts (Washington, 1941), vol. 34, no. 1, January, pp. 34-37, 47-48, p. 48
  • Allene Talmey, "The Fogg Art Museum at Harvard", Vogue, Conde Nast (New York, July 15, 1947), 15 July, pp. 44-49, 78-80, pp. 44, 48
  • Robert Tyler Davis, The Eighteenth Century Art of France and England / L’Art en France et en Angleterre au dix-huitième siècle, exh. cat., The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (Montreal, 1950), cat. no. 98, p. 18
  • Hélène Adhémar and René Huyghe, Watteau: sa vie, son oeuvre, Editions Pierre Tisné (Paris, 1950), p. 230
  • John Coolidge, ed., Picture Book: Survey of the Fogg Collections, Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, 1951), vol. 1, cat. no. 15, n.p.
  • An Exhibition of Drawings, exh. cat., Colby College, Miller Library (Waterville, 1956), cat. no. 8, n.p.
  • Patrick J. Kelleher and Ross E. Taggart, The Century of Mozart, brochure, William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art (now Nelson-Atkins) (Kansas City, 1956), cat. no. 188, pp. 15, 39
  • Karl T. Parker and Jacques Mathey, Antoine Watteau: catalogue complet de son oeuvre dessiné, Libraire F. de Nobele (Paris, 1957-1959), vol. 2, cat. no. 712, p. 334
  • James Watrous, The Craft of Old-Master Drawings, University of Wisconsin Press (Madison, WI, 1957), pp. 96, 102-103
  • Agnes Mongan, "The Fogg Art Museum's Collection of Drawings", Harvard Library Bulletin, Harvard University (Cambridge, 1958), vol. 3, no. 2, March, pp. 5-9, pp. 200, 206
  • Roseline Bacou, “Collections américaines: dessins français", L’Œil, Gasnier (Paris, 1958), no. 46, October, pp. 36-43, p. 38
  • S. Lane Faison, Jr., A Guide to the Art Museums of New England, Harcourt, Brace and Co. (New York, 1958), p. 117
  • Agnes Mongan, De Clouet a Matisse: Dessins français des collections américaines, exh. cat., Musée de l'Orangerie (Paris, 1958), cat. no. 91, n.p.
  • Agnes Mongan, Van Clouet tot Matisse: tentoonstelling van franse tekeningen uit amerikaanse collecties, exh. cat., Museum Boymans (Rotterdam, 1958), cat. no. 91, n.p.
  • Gertrude Rosenthal, “Age of Elegance: The Rococo and its Effect", The Balitmore Museum of Art: News, Baltimore Museum of Art (Baltimore, 1959), vol. 22, no. 4-5, May, pp. 2-23, p. 9
  • Gertrude Rosenthal, Age of Elegance: The Rococo and its Effect, exh. cat., Baltimore Museum of Art (Baltimore, 1959), cat. no. 78, p. 34
  • Agnes Mongan, French Drawings from American Collections: Clouet to Matisse, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, 1959), cat. no. 91, pp. 71-72
  • Fogg Art Museum, Studies and Study Sheets: Master Drawings from Five Centuries, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1964), cat. no. 38, n.p.
  • "Acquisitions", Acquisitions (Fogg Art Museum), ed. John Coolidge, Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, 1965), pp. 17-58, p. 45
  • Agnes Mongan, Memorial Exhibition: Works of Art from the Collection of Paul J. Sachs [1878-1965]: given and bequeathed to the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, exh. cat., Harvard University (Cambridge, MA, 1965), cat. no. 28, n.p.
  • Agnes Mongan, "A Watteau Drawing after Rubens", Acquisitions (Fogg Art Museum), Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, 1966), pp. 161-64, p. 161
  • Daniel M. Mendelowitz, Drawing, Stanford University Press (Stanford, 1967), pp. XIII, 136, 142
  • Roxane Landers Althouse, ed., Rubenism, exh. cat., Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art (Providence, 1975), cat. no. 43, pp. 138-39
  • Nathan Goldstein, A Guide to 100 American and European Drawings: A Portfolio, Prentice-Hall (Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1982), p. 22
  • Debora Mayer, "Technical Examination of Red Chalk" (thesis (certificate in conservation), Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, 1982), Unpublished, pp. 1-33 passim
  • Donald Posner, Antoine Watteau, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (London, 1984), pp. 245, 289-n.37
  • Margaret Morgan Grasselli, Pierre Rosenberg, and Nicole Parmantier, Watteau, 1684-1721, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art and Editions de la Réunion des Musées Nationaux (Washington and Paris, 1984), cat. no. 21, pp. 82-83, 89-90, 445-46
  • Hal N. Opperman, “The Countenance of Watteau: Review of the Exhibition and Catalogue, ‘Watteau, 1684-1721’" (1985)., p. 50
  • Martin Eidelberg, "Review: Watteau, 1684-1721", Master Drawings, Master Drawings Association (1986), vol. 23-24, no. 1, 1985-86, pp. 102-106, p. 105
  • Kristin A. Mortimer and William G. Klingelhofer, Harvard University Art Museums: A Guide to the Collections, Harvard University Art Museums and Abbeville Press (Cambridge and New York, 1986), cat. no. 273, p. 234
  • Deborah D. Mayer and Pamela B. Vandiver, "Red Chalk: Historical and Technical Perspectives, Part 2: A Technical Study", Drawings Defined, ed. Walter Strauss, Abaris Books (New York, 1987), pp. 171-180, p. 172
  • Margaret Morgan Grasselli, "Watteau’s Use of the Trois-Crayons Technique", Drawings Defined, ed. Walter Strauss and Tracie Felker, Abaris Books (New York, 1987), pp. 181-94, pp. 184-85, 194-n.9
  • Margaret Morgan Grasselli, "The Drawings of Antoine Watteau: Stylistic Development and Problems of Chronology" (1987), Harvard University, cat. no. 99, vol. 1, pp. xiii, 182, 184, 186, vol. 2, pp. 395, 469, vol. 3, n.p.
  • Suzanne Folds McCullagh, “The Extraordinary Eye, Erudition, Energy, and Example of Agnes Mongan", Drawing, Broadaxe Press (New York, 1994), vol. 16, no. 2, July-August, pp. 29-32, p. 30
  • Pierre Rosenberg and Louis-Antoine Prat, Antoine Watteau, 1684-1721: catalogue raisonné des dessins, Leonardo Arte (Milan, 1996), vol. 2, cat. no. 413, pp. 682-83
  • Edward Saywell, Behind the Line: The Materials and Techniques of Old Master Drawings, Harvard University Art Museums Bulletin, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, 1998), vol. 6, no. 2, cat. no. 32, pp. 17, 19, 28, 37
  • Alvin L. Clark, Jr., Barbara Brejon de Lavergnée, Jean-Francois Méjanès, Alain Mérot, Margaret Morgan Grasselli, Sophie Raux-Carpentier, William W. Robinson, Marianne Roland Michel, and Pierre Rosenberg, Mastery & Elegance: Two Centuries of French Drawings from the Collection of Jeffrey E. Horvitz, exh. cat., ed. Alvin L. Clark, Jr., Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, 1998), pp. 53-54, 71-n.5
  • Alan Wintermute, Watteau and His World: French Drawing from 1700 to 1750, exh. cat., Merrell Holberton Publishers / American Federation of Arts (London, 1999), cat. no. 21, pp. 132-33
  • William W. Robinson, "Old Master and Nineteenth-Century Drawings at the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University", Master Drawings, Master Drawings Association (2000), vol. 38, no. 3, Autumn, pp. 233-240, pp. 236, 240-n.12
  • “Watteau and His World: French Drawing from 1700 to 1750 / Watteau et son monde: le dessin français de 1700 à 1750", Vernissage, ed. Karen Spierkel, National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa, 2000), vol. 2, no. 1, Winter, pp. 10-11, p. 11
  • Colin B. Bailey, Watteau et son monde: le dessin français de 1700 à 1750, National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa, 2000), pp. 6-8
  • Margaret Morgan Grasselli, “Review: Antoine Watteau, 1684-1721: catalogue raisonné des dessins", Master Drawings, Master Drawings Association (New York, 2001), vol. 39, no. 3, Autumn, pp. 310-14, p. 313
  • Marjorie B. Cohn and Jean Sutherland Boggs, Degas at Harvard, exh. cat., Harvard University Art Museums/Yale University Press (Cambridge and New Haven, 2005), p. 34
  • Stephan Wolohojian and Alvin L. Clark, Jr., Harvard Art Museum/ Handbook, ed. Stephan Wolohojian, Harvard Art Museum (Cambridge, 2008), p. 110
  • Pierre Rosenberg and Louis-Antoine Prat, Watteau: The Drawings, exh. cat., Royal Academy of Arts (London, 2011), cat. no. 47, pp. 116-17
  • Ewa Lajer-Burcharth and Elizabeth M. Rudy, ed., Drawing: The Invention of a Modern Medium, exh. cat., Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, 2017), pp. 165, 284, repr. p. 162 as fig. 1
  • Alvin L. Clark, Jr. and Edouard Kopp, French Drawings from the Age of Claude, Poussin, Watteau, and Fragonard: Highlights from the Collection of the Harvard Art Museums, Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2022), cat. no. 55, repr.; repr. on cover, p. 17

Exhibition History

  • An Exhibition of Old-Master Drawings for the Benefit of Public Health Nursing Milk and Emergency Fund, Junior League, Pittsburgh, 12/13/1933 - 01/06/1934
  • Drawings from the Fogg Museum of Art, Harvard University (Collected by Paul J. Sachs), Century Club, New York, 05/12/1947 - 09/25/1947
  • The Eighteenth Century Art of France and England / L’Art en France et en Angleterre au dix-huitième siècle, The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, 04/27/1950 - 05/31/1950
  • The Century of Mozart, William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art (now Nelson-Atkins), Kansas City, 01/15/1956 - 03/04/1956
  • An Exhibition of Drawings, Colby College, Miller Library, Waterville, 04/27/1956 - 05/23/1956
  • French Drawings from American Collections: Clouet to Matisse, Museum Boymans, Rotterdam, 07/31/1958 - 09/28/1958; Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, 10/24/1958 - 01/02/1959; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 02/03/1959 - 03/15/1959
  • Age of Elegance: The Rococo and its Effect, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, 04/01/1959 - 06/30/1959
  • The Age of Elegance: The Rococo and its Effect, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, 04/25/1959 - 06/14/1959
  • Studies and Study Sheets, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 03/26/1964 - 04/18/1964
  • Memorial Exhibition: Works of Art from the Collection of Paul J. Sachs [1878-1965] Given and Bequeathed to the Fogg Art Museum Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 11/15/1965 - 01/15/1966; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 12/19/1966 - 02/26/1967
  • Rubenism, David Winton Bell Gallery, Providence, 01/30/1975 - 02/23/1975
  • The Heavenly Twins: Edward W. Forbes, Paul J. Sachs and the Building of a Collection, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/23/1995 - 12/17/1995
  • Behind the Line: The Materials and Techniques of Old Master Drawings, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 10/03/1998 - 12/30/1998
  • Watteau and His World: French Drawing from 1700 to 1750, The Frick Collection, New York, 10/19/1999 - 01/09/2000; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 02/11/2000 - 05/08/2000
  • Watteau: The Drawings, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 03/12/2011 - 06/05/2011
  • Drawing: The Invention of a Modern Medium, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 01/21/2017 - 05/07/2017

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu