Page of Womans Head by VIGE-LEBRUN, lisabeth in the Web Gallery of Art, a searchable image collection and database of European paintings and sculptures (1100-1850)

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Woman's Head

1780
Charcoal and coloured chalk on blue paper, 479 x 405 mm
cole des Beaux-Arts, Paris

This picture, showing the head of an attractive woman, made by the then greatly esteemed portrait painter lisabeth Vige-Lebrun, recalls the Rococo. In pastel - a popular medium in the 18th century - the artist modeled the laurel-wreath head of an allegorical figure of peace over a preparatory drawing in black chalk. The work was intended as a study for a painting (La paix ramenant l'Abondance). While the theme and technique are conventional, the flattened composition and the idealized beauty of the head with its cool lustrous and porcelain-like skin tones correspond to Classicist ideas.