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Two Male Heads, Two Arms with a Recorder, and a Child
Also titled Twee mannenhoofden, twee armen met een blokfluit en een kind
Jean Antoine Watteau (Valenciennes, 1684–1721)
1705 - 1716
- Medium
- paper, chalk
- Classification
- drawing
- Dimensions
- height 201 mm x width 252 mm
- Museum
- Rijksmuseum
- Credit line
- Mr and Mrs De Bruijn-van der Leeuw Bequest, Muri, Switzerland
- Rights
- Public Domain Mark, as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
About this work
At the lower right of this study sheet, Watteau depicted two arms and hands holding a recorder. With red chalk alone, the artist exaggerated the bony fingers just enough to capture the delicate tension necessary for playing the instrument. The arms were likely added afterwards to give context to the hands, which explains the anatomically implausible distance between the shoulders.
