Study of Heads for Study for "Castor and Pollux Freeing Helen"

Joseph-Ferdinand Lancrenon

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Lancrenon was a student of Anne Louis Girodet-Trioson, whose elegant Neoclassical style he closely emulated. He competed for the Prix de Rome in 1817, when the subject assigned was Castor and Pollux freeing Helen. In Greek and Roman mythology, Helen of Troy was carried off to Athens by Theseus as a young girl and rescued by her twin brothers, Castor and Pollux. This drawing is one of eight preliminary studies in the museum's collection, together showing the distinct steps the artist used to plan his canvas, executing a series of gradually more precise compositional studies, followed by studies of facial expression as well as figure and drapery studies. Lancrenon used black chalk, stumping, and white chalk on a variety of different papers to emphasize the sinuous contours and to delicately model the forms.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art