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Head of a Boy Singing (Study for Music)
About the Artwork
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 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.
Inscriptions
signed, center right, in black chalk: L. O. M; lower left, in graphite: 33 40
Provenance
?-1977: (Galerie Jacques Fischer-Chantal Kiener, Paris, sold to Muriel Butkin, Shaker Heights, OH) 1977-2008: Muriel Butkin [1916-2008], Shaker Heights, OH, by bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH 2008-: Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Exhibition history
French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 26-October 28, 2001); Dahesh Museum of Art (February 19-May 18, 2002). Themes and Variations: Musical Drawings and Prints. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 25-May 17, 2015).
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Luc-Olivier Merson (French, 1846–1920)
- Date
- c. 1898
- Medium
- black, white, and red chalk with stumping, pricked for transfer
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 39.6 x 27.2 cm (15 9/16 x 10 11/16 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- Bequest of Muriel Butkin
- Accession no.
- 2008.394
More by Luc-Olivier Merson in museum collections
The Rest on the Flight into Egypt (recto); Sketch of a Sphinx [?] (verso)
Luc-Olivier Mersonc. 1879–80 · Drawing
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00011116
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