A Man leaning against a Pillar

This drawing, dated by Pierre Rosenberg and Louis-Antoine Prat to 1709-10, was used by Watteau for one of his etchings of the Figures de Modes, P. Rosenberg and L.-A. Prat, op. cit., fig. 39b. As pointed out by Martin Eidelberg the etchings of the Figures de Modes were always prepared with two drawings: the first, like the present sheet, shows only the figure while the second shows it in a landscape. The second drawing, slightly smaller in size, is in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, and was the model for the engraver (fig. 1).
The present drawing was etched by Jean Audran for the 1728 volume of Jean de Julienne's Figures de différents caractères de paysages et d'études dessinées d'après nature par Antoine Watteau.