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Identification and Creation

Object Number
2006.248
People
Louis-Marin Bonnet, French (Paris 1736 - 1793 Saint-Mandé)
After Joseph-Marie Vien, the Elder, French (Montpellier 1716 - 1809 Paris)
Title
Head of Saint Germain
Other Titles
Former Title: Head of a Bearded Man Gazing Upward
Classification
Prints
Work Type
print
Date
after 1755
Culture
French
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/94053

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Crayon manner etching with engraved inscription, printed in red ink
Technique
Crayon manner print
Dimensions
Image: 31.4 × 38.7 cm (12 3/8 × 15 1/4 in.)
Plate: 33 × 38.7 cm (13 × 15 1/4 in.)
Sheet: 36.7 × 41 cm (14 7/16 × 16 1/8 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: Bonnet
  • inscription: lower left corner, brown printer's ink, engraved, Latin, signed: Vien delin .
  • inscription: lower center, brown printer's ink, engraved, French, signed: A Paris, chez Bonnet, rue St. Jacques
  • inscription: lower right corner, brown printer's ink, engraved, Latin, signed: Bonnet Sculp .
  • inscription: verso, lower right corner, graphite, handwritten: No 89
  • inscription: upper right corner (inside plate mark), brown printer's ink, engraved: No. 47

State, Edition, Standard Reference Number

Standard Reference Number
Hérold 47

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Jeffrey E. Horvitz
Accession Year
2006
Object Number
2006.248
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Description
There is a related drawing at the Harvard Art Museum. 1999.23
Commentary
Harvard Art Museum has in its collection the Vien drawing that served as the direct model for this crayon manner etching. Comparison of the two works confirms that the drawing has been trimmed, particularly at the left side, where the sitter's collar is rather conspicuously incomplete. Of considerable interest too is the translation, or rather mistranslation, of Vien's composition: although the print accurately reproduces the sitter's head and features, the folds of the sitter's cloak are noticeably more stylized and one-dimensional than in the drawing, which mitigates against the possibility of a counterproof serving as the intermediate design source for the etching. It is an example of the kind of print that was produced as a model for drawing students, who in the art academies were obliged to work from prints prior to being allowed to work from three-dimensional casts. These exercises preceded work from the live model that was the ostensible cause for the formation of art academies, and presumably the student not lucky enough to enter an academy or own casts would have to be content with prints such as this.

Publication History

  • Ewa Lajer-Burcharth and Elizabeth M. Rudy, ed., Drawing: The Invention of a Modern Medium, exh. cat., Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, 2017), p. 57, repr. p. 56 as fig. 16

Exhibition History

  • 32Q: 2220 18th-19th Century, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 03/11/2015

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project

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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