(1714 Paris 1789)
Study of a seated nude man
Black chalk enhanced with white chalk
425 x 315 mm
Signed at the lower right : Pierre
PROVENANCE : Sale Paris, Hôtel Drouot, Me Moisy, 9 May 1973 ;
Sale Paris, Hôtel Drouot, Me Loudmer, 23 March 1987, n°8 repr. cat. ;
Private Collection
LITERATURE : Nicolas Lesur and Olivier Aaron, Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre, 1714-1789, Premier peintre du roi, Paris, Arthena, 2009, D.242, repr. p. 395.
Our sheet depicts one of the most emblematic exercises of the artistic training offered by the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture—referred to by metonymy as an “academy”: the anatomical study from a live model. Consequently, our work should likely be associated with Pierre’s formative period, and more specifically the years he spent at the Palazzo Mancini under the supervision of Vleughels. In several letters addressed to the Duke of Antin, Vleughels indeed notes the constant practice by his students of drawing from life and from classical antiquity.
A model posed daily so that young artists could practice, and three oil-painted academies by Pierre from this period have survived. Among them, the two canvases in the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe are particularly close to our sheet.