Beschreibung:

Black chalk on blue paper 355 x 457mm Literature: J. Guiffrey, L'Oeuvre de Pierre-Paul Prud'hon Paris, 1924, no. 359 Exhibited: Paris, Exposition de dessins de maitres modernes, 1884 no. 561 Provenance: Madame Viardot (her sale, Paris, 27th June 1910, lot 4) This is a studio version of a drawing made by Prud'hon in preparation for one of his greatest allegorical paintings, commissioned for the Palais de Justice in Paris in 1804, completed in 1808 and now in the Louvre. The painting went through many changes and in this version Prud'hon represened the murderer of a woman and child brought before the bench of divine justice. It was superseded by the final night scene, in which a thief and murderer is pursued by Nemesis and Themis. The present drawing is slightly varied from the composition in the Louvre (Inv. 32589) and its enhanced plasticity suggests that it may be by the sculptor jean-david-d-angers" title="Pierre-Jean David d'Angers">Pierre-Jean David d'Angers who sold the original to the Louvre in 1853.