Head in Profile to the Left from the ’’Queens at the Feet of Alexander the Great’’
ca 1661
Charles Le Brun, the ultimate court painter for Louis XIV, had a fascinating obsession with human expressions, and this intense profile study is a perfect example. Created around 1661 as part of his grand project depicting the Queens at the Feet of Alexander the Great, the figure wears a massive turban and sports a wildly exaggerated, grimacing face that looks more like a caricature than a classical hero. Le Brun actually wrote a whole treatise on how facial features reflect emotions, making these dramatic sketches some of the earliest scientific attempts to map human psychology through art.
Views: 4