# Woman's Head [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [VIGÉE-LEBRUN, Élisabeth]() - Date: 1751-1800 - Technique: Charcoal and coloured chalk on blue paper, 479 x 405 mm ## Commentary This picture, showing the head of an attractive woman, made by the then greatly esteemed portrait painter Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, recalls the Rococo. In pastel - a popular medium in the 18th century - the artist modeled the laurel-wreath head of an allegorical figure of peace over a preparatory drawing in black chalk. The work was intended as a study for a painting \(La paix ramenant l'Abondance\). While the theme and technique are conventional, the flattened composition and the idealized beauty of the head with its cool lustrous and porcelain-like skin tones correspond to Classicist ideas. ## Related artworks - [Bacchante]() - [Hubert Robert, Artist]() - [Madame d'Aguesseau de Fresnes]() - [Madame Perregaux]() - [Marie Antoinette]() - [Moritz von Fries]() - [Portrait of a Young Musician]() - [Portrait of a Young Woman]() - [Portrait of Anna Pitt as Hebe]() - [Portrait of Hyacinthe Gabrielle Roland]() - [Portrait of Madame de Staël as Corinne on Cape Misenum]() - [Portrait of Madame Grand]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()