Sheet of Studies (replica)
Medium
Black crayon, on tan tracing paper, laid down on card
Dimensions
25.8 × 17.7 cm (10 3/16 × 7 in.)
Classification
crayon
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
80617
Art Historical Context
Henri Fantin-Latour (1836–1904), a prominent French artist of the Realism movement, was renowned for his meticulous portraits, intimate group scenes, and delicate still lifes. This *Sheet of Studies (replica)*, housed in the Art Institute of's Prints and Drawings department exemplifies his preparatory work. Though undated, it captures the artist's exploratory process through quick, expressive sketches—likely figures or compositions—rendered in black crayon on tan tracing paper, then laid down on card for preservation. At 25.8 × 17.7 cm, its intimate scale invites close inspection. Tracing pap...
About the Artist
Henri Fantin-Latour · 1836–1904
Ignace Henri Jean Théodore Fantin-Latour was born on January 14, 1836, in Grenoble, France, to portrait painter Théodore Fantin-Latour, who gave him his earliest drawing lessons. The family relocated to Paris in 1841, where in 1850, at age 14, he enrolled in the École de Dessin, studying under Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran, whose innovative memory-based method of drawing from observation profoundly ...