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Lot Essay
Drawing from the male nude in the context of artistic education was so well-established in the eighteenth century that it was also practiced by artists – and appreciated by art lovers – for its own sake. Some of the most attractive examples were produced by François Boucher during the course of his lifetime – during his schooling as a young artist, and later when he became a professor and eventually director at the Académie royale (for a discussion of Boucher’s académies, see A. Laing, Les Dessins de François Boucher, exhib. cat., New York, The Frick Collection, and Fort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum, 2003-2004, nos. 26, 28, ill.; and Françoise Joulie, François Boucher. Fragments d’une vision du monde, exhib. cat., Holte, Gl Holtegaard, 2012, pp. 67-69, nos. 19-25). In contrast to his widely admired, softly modelled studies of the female nude, even his earlier studies of men are notable for their more vigorous style.
Although a date for the drawing in the 1730s and 1740s has been suggested by Regina Shoolman Slatkin to (op. cit., p. 34), the angular style, powerful modelling, stark contrasts between dark and shadow point to a later date, in the next decade. Among similar studies can be cited those in the Musée des Beaux-Arts et d’Archéologie in Besançon (inv. D 2996, D 2825) and the Musée Auguste Grasset in Varzy (inv. VP 158; see Joulie, op. cit., nos. 23-25, ill.). Even the model may be the same in these works and in the one offered here; he is often identified with a professional model named Deschamps (ibid., p. 68). As Larry Clark has noted and as also illustrated by the present example, ‘Boucher’s academies reveal his preference for pensive poses in which the model supported his chin on one of his hands,’ poses which ‘had the additional advantage of enabling the model to sustain the pose’ (Mastery and Elegance. Two Centuries of French Drawings from the Collection of Jeffrey E. Horvitz, exhib. cat., Cambridge, Harvard University Art Museums, and elsewhere, 1998-2000, p. 228, under no. 60).
Although a date for the drawing in the 1730s and 1740s has been suggested by Regina Shoolman Slatkin to (op. cit., p. 34), the angular style, powerful modelling, stark contrasts between dark and shadow point to a later date, in the next decade. Among similar studies can be cited those in the Musée des Beaux-Arts et d’Archéologie in Besançon (inv. D 2996, D 2825) and the Musée Auguste Grasset in Varzy (inv. VP 158; see Joulie, op. cit., nos. 23-25, ill.). Even the model may be the same in these works and in the one offered here; he is often identified with a professional model named Deschamps (ibid., p. 68). As Larry Clark has noted and as also illustrated by the present example, ‘Boucher’s academies reveal his preference for pensive poses in which the model supported his chin on one of his hands,’ poses which ‘had the additional advantage of enabling the model to sustain the pose’ (Mastery and Elegance. Two Centuries of French Drawings from the Collection of Jeffrey E. Horvitz, exhib. cat., Cambridge, Harvard University Art Museums, and elsewhere, 1998-2000, p. 228, under no. 60).