Pierre-Paul Prud'hon Cluny 1758 - 1823 Paris

This drawing must have been made as a design for a book illustration.  Although today Prud'hon's fame as a draughtsman rests primarily on his large-scale figure and composition studies (see lot 138), like many of his contemporaries he also worked extensively as a designer of illustrations, and his fertile imagination made his drawings of this type particularly fascinating. For further information, see Prud'hon, ou le rêve du bonheur, exhibition catalogue, Paris, Grand Palais, and New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1997-8, pp. 117-135, and also the drawings sold, London, Sotheby's, 11 July 2001, lot 202, and New York, Sotheby's, 23 January 2001, lot 347.