Head of a Young Man (Study for L'Oiseau de passage) (1853): Art, History and Details

Head of a Young Man (Study for L'Oiseau de passage) (1853) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Paul Gavarni (French, 1804–1866).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Paul Gavarni made this drawing as a study for L'Oiseau de passage (The Bird of Passage), one of the lithographs in a series on Parisian courtesans that he produced for the newspaper Paris. The lithograph's title, L'Oiseau de passage, must refer to the young man since messieurs de passage were casual lovers a courtesan might take on to supplement her protector's regular support. This drawing was once part of the important collection of the artist's work amassed by the writers Edmond (1822–1896) and Jules (1830–1870) de Goncourt. The Goncourts believed Gavarni captured the essence of 19th-century life, and they cited this particular drawing in their Journal des Goncourt, where they called it "the study of this cruel redhead."

Object facts

• Title: Head of a Young Man (Study for L'Oiseau de passage)
• Date: 1853
• Creator attribution: Paul Gavarni (French, 1804–1866)
• Culture: France, 19th century
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: graphite and red chalk with stylus heightened with white on off-white woven paper
• Dimensions: Sheet: 23.6 x 16.6 cm (9 5/16 x 6 9/16 in.)
• Collection: DR - French
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 2008.352

Collection credit

Bequest of Muriel Butkin

Further reading listed by the museum

• Foster, Carter E., Sylvain Bellenger, and Patrick Shaw Cable. French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.