Study of Two Women

Etienne Jeaurat French

Not on view

Jeaurat belonged to a literary society interested in social life outside aristocratic circles (the Société du Bout du Banc) and painted unidealized genre scenes of the working classes. This drawing is a study for his painting The Painter’s Move (Le déménagement du peintre, ca. 1755), which shows a wooden cart moving the artist’s family and possessions through the streets of Paris. In the finished work, the two women—one holding a large loaf of bread and the other seated, holding a small container—occupy opposite ends of the composition. On this sheet, however, they share the same attentive atmosphere. Probably sketching from life, Jeaurat used parallel hatching and white highlights to delicately suggest volume and lighting contrasts.

Study of Two Women, Etienne Jeaurat (French, Vermenton 1699–1789 Versailles), Black chalk, heightened with white, on gray paper

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Study of Two Women, Etienne Jeaurat (French, Vermenton 1699–1789 Versailles), Black chalk, heightened with white, on gray paper
Study of Two Women, Etienne Jeaurat (French, Vermenton 1699–1789 Versailles), Black chalk, heightened with white, on gray paper

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