A winter landscape with skaters near a tent

Auguste-Xavier Leprince participated in the Salon from 1819 to 1827 (the latter posthumous, as the artist died prematurely in 1826). At the Salon of 1824, Leprince exhibited a painting of a winter landscape with ice-skaters, Les Patineurs, similar in subject matter to the present drawing (the painting was sold at Christie’s in Paris on 26 June 2003, lot 98). The theme of the winter scene, inspired by the work of Northern artists, held great appeal for Leprince’s admirers. The present drawing is dated 1826, two years after Leprince had completed the painting for the Salon.