The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 21, 2025

Head of Caracalla

c. 1768

Jean-Baptiste Greuze

(French, 1725–1805)
France, 18th century
Red chalk on cream laid paper
Sheet: 38.8 x 30.3 cm (15 1/4 x 11 15/16 in.); Secondary Support: 45.6 x 37.1 cm (17 15/16 x 14 5/8 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1999.48
Location: Not on view

Description

As part of their training in the late 18th century, French artists practiced drawing têtes d'expression, or expressive heads, that display subtleties of human emotion. Greuze made this chalk study in preparation for a painting in which the Roman emperor Septimius Severus rebukes his notoriously ruthless son, Caracalla, for attempting to assassinate him. Although Greuze based this face for the figure of Caracalla on a Roman portrait bust, he imaginatively adapted the facial expression to dramatize Caracalla’s resentment and humiliation during the confrontation.
  • ?-?
    M. and Mme. Jules Porges, Paris
    ?-?
    Comtesse Rosalie de Fitz-James [1862-1923], Paris
    ?-?
    (William H. Schab Gallery, NY)
    1956-?
    Julian Raskin, Scarsdale, NY, by descent to his family
    ?-1999
    (Spink-Leger Pictures, London, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1999-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Munhall, Edgar and Joseph Focarino. Jean-Baptiste Greuze, 1725-1805. Hartford: Wadsworth Atheneum, 1976. Mentioned: p. 148, under no. 70
    Cleveland Museum of Art, “Major Contemporary German Painting Acquired by CMA,” June 9, 1999, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. archive.org
    "A Selection of 1999 Museum Acquisitions." Apollo 150 (December 1999). Mentioned and reproduced: p. 33
    Foster, Carter. "Drawn to Drama." Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 40, no. 6 (Summer 2000): 8-9. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 8-9 archive.org
    Munhall, Edgar. Greuze the Draftsman. New York: Frick Collection, in association with Merrell, 2002. Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 191-93, no. 67
    Poivet, Clémence, and Annick Lemoine. Greuze et l'affaire du Septime Sévère. Paris: Somogy, 2005. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 47
    Wood, Susan. "Caracalla and the French Revolution: A Roman Tyrant in Eighteenth-Century Iconography." Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome 55 (2010). Mentioned: p. 309; reproduced: p. 300 www.jstor.org
    Kahng, Eik. Delacroix and the Matter of Finish. Santa Barbara, CA: Santa Barbara Museum of Art, in association with Yale University Press, 2013. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 25
    Prat, Louis-Antoine. Le dessin français au XVIIIe siècle. Paris: Louvre éditions: Somogy, 2017. Reproduced: p. 445, no. 908
  • Elegance and Intrigue: French Society in 18th-century Prints and Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 16-November 6, 2016).
    Greuze, The Draftsman. J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA (September 10-December 1, 2002).
    Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002).
  • {{cite web|title=Head of Caracalla|url=false|author=Jean-Baptiste Greuze|year=c. 1768|access-date=21 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1999.48