
Cleveland Museum of Art
Head of Caracalla
Jean-Baptiste GreuzeLinkedCulture matchlcp-36892674f2b7
- Date
- c. 1768
- Medium
- Red chalk on cream laid paper
- Culture
- France, 18th century
- Department
- Drawings
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Object ID
- 161273
From the Cleveland Museum of Art record
As part of their training in the late 18th century, French artists practiced drawing têtes d'expression, or expressive heads, that display subtleties of human emotion. Greuze made this chalk study in preparation for a painting in which the Roman emperor Septimius Severus rebukes his notoriously ruthless son, Caracalla, for attempting to assassinate him. Although Greuze based this face for the figure of Caracalla on a Roman portrait bust, he imaginatively adapted the facial expression to dramatize Caracalla’s resentment and humiliation during the confrontation.
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Provenance & credit
As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.
- Credit line
- Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
- Provenance
- ?-?: M. and Mme. Jules Porges, Paris | ?-?: Comtesse Rosalie de Fitz-James [1862-1923], Paris | ?-?: (William H. Schab Gallery, NY) | 1956-?: Julian Raskin, Scarsdale, NY, by descent to his family | ?-1999: (Spink-Leger Pictures, London, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) | 1999-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
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