Head of a Raven in Profile, from The Raven (Le Corbeau)1875
A raven’s head in profile, set down in a few bold brushstrokes, belongs to the edition of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven that Stéphane Mallarmé translated and Manet illustrated in 1875. More about this work
About this work
A raven’s head in profile, set down in a few bold brushstrokes, belongs to the edition of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven that Stéphane Mallarmé translated and Manet illustrated in 1875. Alongside the full-page scenes, Manet designed smaller motifs such as this one, which reduces the bird to a sharp beak, a bright eye and a ruff of black feathers. The transfer lithograph process let him draw on paper with brush and ink and have the image printed directly, with all the spontaneity of his hand intact.
Written by Ochre Editions.
What you’re looking at
A work made of transfer lithograph in black on tan simili-parchment paper.
Description from the Art Institute of Chicago.
How it was made
- Lithograph
- Drawn on limestone with a greasy crayon or ink. The stone is kept damp, and the oily printing ink clings only to the drawing. Invented in the 1790s, it let artists print exactly as they drew.
Édouard Manet
French, 1832–1883 · Born and died in Paris.
Manet came from a prosperous Parisian family, trained under Thomas Couture and studied the old masters, Velázquez above all. In the 1860s he provoked critics with Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe and Olympia, modern subjects painted in flat, frank colour with little modelling. Though he never showed with the Impressionists, younger painters looked to him as a leader, and in his last years he painted Parisian café life and A Bar at the Folies-Bergère.
Written by Ochre Editions.
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The Art Institute of Chicago has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 1945.52.1
- Credit
- Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
- Type
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
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