id:			166681
accession number:	2008.394
share license status:	CC0
url:			https://clevelandart.org/art/2008.394
updated:		2023-08-24 00:29:24.732000

Head of a Boy Singing (Study for Music), c. 1898. Luc-Olivier Merson (French, 1846–1920). Black, white, and red chalk with stumping, pricked for transfer; sheet: 39.6 x 27.2 cm (15 9/16 x 10 11/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Muriel Butkin 2008.394

title:				Head of a Boy Singing (Study for Music)
title in original language:	
series:				
series in original language:	
creation date:			c. 1898
creation date earliest:		1893
creation date latest:		1903
current location:		
creditline:			Bequest of Muriel Butkin
copyright:			

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culture:	France, 19th century
technique:	black, white, and red chalk with stumping, pricked for transfer
department:	Drawings
collection:	Drawings
type:		Drawing
find spot:	
catalogue raisonne: 

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CREATORS

* Luc-Olivier Merson (French, 1846–1920)  - artist

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measurements: Sheet: 39.6 x 27.2 cm (15 9/16 x 10 11/16 in.)
state of the work:	
edition of the work: 	

support materials:

	description:	light brown wove paper
	watermarks:	

inscriptions:

	inscription:	signed, center right, in black chalk: L. O. M; lower left, in graphite: 33 40 
	translation:	
	remark:		

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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

	title:		French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin
	opening date:   2001-08-26T00:00:00
	<i>French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin</i>. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 26-October 28, 2001); Dahesh Museum of Art (February 19-May 18, 2002).

	title:		Themes and Variations: Musical Drawings and Prints
	opening date:   2015-01-25T00:00:00
	<i>Themes and Variations: Musical Drawings and Prints</i>. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 25-May 17, 2015).

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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS

* <em>Visages du dix-neuvième siècle</em>, Galerie Jacques Fischer-Chantal Kiener, Paris (December 1 - 15, 1977).

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PROVENANCE

	(Galerie Jacques Fischer-Chantal Kiener, Paris, sold to Muriel Butkin, Shaker Heights, OH)
	date: ?-1977
	footnotes: 	
	citations: 	


	Muriel Butkin [1916-2008], Shaker Heights, OH, by bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
	date: 1977-2008
	footnotes: 	
	citations: 	


	Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
	date: 2008-
	footnotes: 	
	citations: 	


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fun fact:
The face of the boy in this drawing is pricked extensively so that the image could be transferred directly to the final painting for which it was a study. The two works differ only in the addition of a hat on the boy's head in the final work.

digital description:
This sheet was a preparatory study for the face of a singing boy who appears near the center of <em>Music</em>, a mural decorating the left grand staircase at the Théâtre National de l’Opéra-Comique in Paris. Drawn from life with exquisite naturalism, Luc-Olivier Merson captured the sitter’s youthful beauty with such clarity that the purity of the boy’s voice seems to emanate from the drawing.

wall description:
This sheet was a preparatory study for the face of a singing boy who appears near the center of Music, a mural decorating the left grand staircase at the Théâtre National de l’Opéra-Comique, Paris. Drawn from life with exquisite naturalism, Merson captured the sitter’s youthful beauty with such clarity that the purity of the boy’s voice seems to emanate from the drawing.
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RELATED WORKS

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CITATIONS

	<em>Visages du dix-neuvième siècle</em>. Exh. Cat. Paris: Galerie Jacques Fischer-Chantal Kiener, 1977.
	page number: 	Mentioned and reproduced: no. 28
	url:		

	<em>Le Moyen-Âge et les peintres français de la fin du XIXe siècle: Jean-Paul Laurens et ses contemporains</em>. Exh. Cat. Cagnes-sur-Mer: Château-Musée de Cagnes-sur-Mer, 1980.
	page number: 	Mentioned: p. 65, under no. 42
	url:		

	Foster, Carter E., Sylvain Bellenger, and Patrick Shaw Cable. <em>French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin</em>. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001.
	page number: 	Mentioned: pp. 128-29, 144, no. 59; Reproduced: p. 129
	url:		

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IMAGES

web:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2008.394/2008.394_web.jpg
print:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2008.394/2008.394_print.jpg
full:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2008.394/2008.394_full.tif