Study of a seated Nude

Picart trained in his native city of Paris before travelling to Antwerp in 1696. He first visited Holland a year later. By 1698 he had returned to Paris, where he worked as a reproductive printmaker until 1710. In 1711 he established himself in Amsterdam, where he remained for the rest of his life. Through his connections with the many French Protestants living in Holland he became one of the most important engravers of his time. Picart illustrated mainly religious and other books but also copies of contemporary and earlier artists for large illustrated works. The present academy study was probably drawn for later use in one or more of his prints.