The Poor Bench in Saint-Germain-des-près
Léon-Augustin Lhermitte French
Not on view
Lhermitte was a leading artist in the revival of the charcoal medium in the second half of the nineteenth century. The visible watermark on the lower left edge of this sheet is that of an art supplier, L. Berville, who especially promoted materials for charcoal drawing. In this early preparatory work related to a more finished drawing, the women seated along the church bench appear increasingly abstracted as they recede along the diagonal into dark shadow. Yet, even in the absence of detail, their hunched postures convey their downtrodden status.
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