Desire (from "Heads Representing the Various Passions of the Soul; as they are Expressed in the Human Countenance: Drawn by that Great Master Monsieur Le Brun")
Medium
Engraving with etching
Dimensions
Plate: 11 1/4 x 7 1/4 in. (28.6 x 18.4 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1953
Accession Number
53.638.31(20-5)
Tags
Art Historical Context
Welcome to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department, where we encounter *Desire*, a captivating 1765 engraving with etching from the series *Heads Representing the Variousions of the Soul*. Created by an anonymous British artist after designs by the renowned 17th-century French master Charles Le Brun, and published by Robert Sayer this print measures 11¼ x 7¼ inches vividly captures a woman's face alight with longing. Le Brun, director of the French Royal Academy, developed these expressive heads in the 1660s to illustrate the physiological manifestations of human emoti...