Thirteen heads

Rowlandson’s wide-ranging depiction of extreme expressions in this radiating cluster of heads speaks to his fascination with translating human emotions into a linear vocabulary decipherable by a viewer. Each of the heads on this sheet evidences the artist’s ability to significantly alter the effect of a figure’s face through subtle alterations to the pen lines. A key influence on such investigations into different facial arrangements was Charles Le Brun’s lecture at the French Académie in 1688—later published with illustrations as the Conférence sur l’expression générale et particulière—which attempted to codify specific facial movements in relation to particular passions.