Three Figures

18th century

Three Figures, 18th century. Pierre-Jacques Volaire (French, 1729–1802). Black and white chalk on blue-gray prepared paper; sheet: 26.3 x 21 cm (10 3/8 x 8 1/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Muriel Butkin 2018.48 Volaire’s sketch of two women with a child is an example of the numerous figure studies he executed on blue-gray prepared paper with black and white chalk. This drawing likely did not relate to a later painting, but instead seems to have been produced as a visual record of the artist’s creative experimentation.