Contest for the Prize for the Study of Heads and Expression

Discussion

FROM THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO’S CATALOG

After Le Brun’s death, both fledgling and established artists evidently still struggled to properly depict facial expressions. The amateur etcher and antiquarian Comte de Caylus established an annual prize at the French Academy to encourage this study. Flipart’s print of one such competition shows the model as the requisite well-bred, wreathed woman with an ankle exposed, and a typically inscrutable expression that may represent contentment, calm, or simple boredom.

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