Description
For many years in a private Chicago collection and long desired for the museum, this striking drawing appeared for auction in 1996 and was purchased by Dorothy Edinburg for her collection at the Art Institute of Chicago. It is one of about 100 male and female nude studies in black and white chalk on blue paper that the artist made between 1810 and 1821. This model has been identified as the dark-haired beauty Marguerite, who famously caught the eye of Frederick William III, king of Prussia, in Prud’hon’s studio in 1814.
Provenance
Given by the artist to his pupil, Mme. Sophie Duprat. Cambray [Paris 1921 auc. cat.]. Gaston le Breton; sold Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, Dec. 6-8, 1921, lot 132. Dr. Eugene Solow (died 1995), Chicago, by 1988; sold, Christie's, New York, May 22, 1996, lot 25, to Dorothy Braude Edinburg, Brookline, MA.; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2013.
Accession Number
145815
Medium
Black and white chalks, with stumping, on blue laid paper
Dimensions
52 × 31.1 cm (20 1/2 × 12 1/4 in.)
Classification
chalk
Credit Line
Gift of Dorothy Braude Edinburg to the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection
