c. 1870

Study of Three Heads

Henri Regnault

French, 1843 - 1871

On this small canvas, probably painted during a stay in Tangier, Henri Regnault depicts the heads of three African men from different angles. Informal preparatory sketches were an essential part of the academic painting process, allowing artists to work out ideas for a subject or record the features of a model. That this work is primarily an exercise in observation and paint handling is demonstrated by the appearance of the heads as if suspended in space and emerging with thick brushstrokes from a white ground, forcing attention on their individuality rather than their setting.

Regnault left French- and Spanish-controlled Morocco in the fall of 1870, during the Franco-Prussian War, and enlisted in the French Army. He was killed in battle the following year, without having an opportunity to incorporate these heads into a larger painting.