Head of a Boy
Jacques-Louis David
1775/80
Medium
black chalk on bluish laid paper
Dimensions
overall: 13 x 9 cm (5 1/8 x 3 9/16 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Patrons' Permanent Fund
Accession Number
1998.105.1.b
About the Artist
Jacques-Louis David · 1748–1825
Jacques-Louis David, born on August 30, 1748, in Paris, emerged as the preeminent French painter of Neoclassicism, a movement emphasizing austere lines, moral clarity, and classical antiquity as antidotes to Rococo frivolity. Orphaned young after his father's death in a duel, he was raised by prosperous architect uncles and educated at the Collège des Quatre-Nations. Defying family expectations, D...