Head of a Young Woman, Jean-Baptiste Greuze
Red chalk on paper. 16 x 12 inches (41 x 31 cm), 18th century.
In the Morgan Library and Museum. Use download link under image, or zoom version.
Greuze has drawn an understated but elegant and remarkably strong study. The hands and bonnet are quickly realized, but the face is an authoritative statement of the geometry of the human head.
I can see the influence of drawings such as this on later anatomists like George Bridgeman and John H. Vanderpoel, and illustrators like J.C. Leyendecker, Dean Cornwell and Andrew Loomis.
