Idealized Female Head (Tête d'expression)
Jean-Jacques HENNER
(French, 1829-1905)
Idealized Female Head (Tête d'expression)
Datelate 1880s
Mediumoil on canvas mounted to panel
Dimensionsoverall: 18 1/2 x 12 3/4 in. (47 x 32.4 cm)
frame: 23 3/4 x 18 x 1 3/4 in. (60.3 x 45.7 x 4.4 cm)
ClassificationPAINTINGS
Credit LineSBMA, Gift of the A.E. Clegg Family
Object number1991.89.5
Subject(s)
- portraits
- women
Collection
- 19th century French
On View
Not on viewCollections
Label TextHenner was academically trained to produce the high-polished illusionism associated with his teachers, Michel-Martin Drölling and Francois-Edouard Picot. Exposure to the work of Titian and Correggio while studying at the French Academy in Rome led to a softening of his brushwork and an emulation of the sfumato (blurring of edges and contours) associated with these old masters. Starting in 1865, Henner found critical and popular success at the Paris Salon with his nymphs and naiads posed in timeless pastoral landscapes. Invariably, his female figures are red-headed, as in this case of this study. Henner repeated this figural type so many times that she became an instantly recognizable brand identified with the artist.
