Art, literature & history
Head of Caracalla
c. 1768
- Dating
- Approximate date range
- Held at
- The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Medium
- Red chalk on cream laid paper
- Dimensions
- 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.)
- Collection no.
- 1999.48
- Attribution
- By the artist
- Image rights
- CC0 1.0License details
Jean-Baptiste Greuze. Head of Caracalla. The Cleveland Museum of Art. CC0 1.0. Compressed full-frame reproduction.
Collection: The Cleveland Museum of Art
About this artwork
Head of Caracalla — Jean-Baptiste Greuze. c. 1768.
Medium: Red chalk on cream laid paper. Dimensions: 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.).
Collection record: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland. Museum connection according to this source; current display unverified.
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.
Source: official collection record. Metadata selected and normalized by Artline from the source export, accessed 10 September 2026; no museum endorsement. Reproduction rights are separate.
Location checked Sep 10, 2026. This does not indicate whether the work is on display.