French Male Nude Old Master Drawing after Constance Marie Le Charpentier (1767 - 1849)

Academic drawing of a nude man standing

Wonderful 19th-century academic French drawing in the style of Charpentier. Presumed to be an unsigned later 20th-century student study or copy. Rendered in pencil, charcoal, and possibly chalk on laid paper with no watermark. Sold without frame or mat.

Dimensions: 37.25 cm x 29 cm (approx 14.5" x 11.5")

About: Constance Marie Le Charpentier was a French painter born in 1767. A student of Jacques-Louis David (1748 -1825), Constance Charpentier was quickly considered one of the best portrait artists of her time. She regularly exhibited at the Salon and distinguished herself with a gold medal in 1814. This academy, presented today, is all the more exceptional as it represents a nude male model and is the work of a female painter. Going against the social norms of the time, David chose to teach young women, and although he had to close the studio he had opened in 1787, we know he opened a new one on Rue du Faubourg-Saint-Martin where he regularly placed some of his drawings as models. Perhaps it was in this context that our painter had access to nude models, suggesting that she would have the opportunity to try her hand at the Grand Genre. The artist died in 1849.