Head of a Woman: Study for "The Happy Mother" (L'Heureuse mère) Gm-00045001

Pierre-Paul Prud'hon (French, 1758–1823) A nearly life-sized woman in antique dress gazes fondly at something held in her unfinished right arm. With her exposed breast, this ideal woman mingles dream and sensuality, anticipating Romanticism. The broad masses of light and shadow enhance the dreamlike effect.

At the height of his career, Pierre-Paul Prud'hon made this nearly life-sized drawing as a model for a painting by his mistress and professional associate, Constance Mayer. The woman in the painting, titled The Happy Mother, gazes adoringly at her nursing infant. Following the writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who popularized and glorified maternity as a natural physical and emotional bond, both artists portrayed feminine tenderness. Such emotion set Prud'hon's imagery apart from his Neoclassical contemporaries. Prud'hon preferred to draw with powdery applications of black and white chalk on blue or gray paper. Instead of using lines, he indicated contours of forms by stumping. Building up form by gradations of light created with white chalk, he explored the play of light on flesh.

We make each of our prints one at a time—just for you.

Our Giclée Prints are printed here in Switzerland, one at a time, on heavy matte German art paper using the finest 12-color Canon archival inks. Some images are panoramic or tall and narrow—please select the 18" x 36" format for these.

Our Premium Museum Frame in Black is custom-made in Lugano, Switzerland, using natural wood moulding in a matte black satin finish. Each includes thick, hand-cut white mat boards and Plexiglass glazing. We tailor and print each image to fit its specific ratio and dimensions within our custom-made frames. The hand-cut mats are extra thick. Each bespoke museum frame ships in a custom box. Rush shipping is available for projects with tight deadlines—this is our specialty, and you will not be disappointed.

Our Antiqued Museum Frame in Gold is a high-quality frame made of solid wood, featuring traditional 19th-century cast plaster moulded details and closed corners. These frames are works of art in themselves, each with a unique patina. The hand-rubbed corners and gold finish evoke the elegance of times past. Your selected image is printed on German art paper with archival inks and mounted to quality art board within the frame. Plexiglass is added for print protection and the back is covered with Kraft paper and a hanger is supplied ready to hang..

Our Stretched Canvas prints are hand-stretched over 1.25" thick pine bars and printed with archival inks on a cotton-poly matte finish canvas. These are best-in-industry Swiss-quality canvases, hand-coated for UV protection.

Wall Murals are printed on a matte-finish, self-adhesive poly/fabric material that mounts easily and is ideal for smooth wall surfaces.

Our Note Cards are amazing—each is printed individually on 100% cotton art paper, comes with a kraft envelope, and is individually sleeved. (Image is scaled to fit the format.)

All of our images are digitized from the original negative or print and printed by our master printer to museum standards.

Questions? Please email service@archivea.com or call/text +41 79 265 8891.

Artwork in this collection is from The J. Paul Getty Museum. Reproduction rights are reserved by the copyright owner and used under license by Archivea GmbH.