Studies for the decoration of the Library, Palais Bourbon, Paris: standing nude athlete; seated man with a lyre; centaur; and seven putti (three with wings)

Description

Nude figures and small putti spread across Delacroix’s study sheet for the Palais Bourbon library, with a standing figure at the left and a seated figure extending an arm near an instrument. Eugène Delacroix gathers these subjects in preparation for the Palais Bourbon library decoration. Their varied positions make the page an encounter with possibilities of form rather than a single complete narrative scene.

Made in pen and brown ink with faint graphite on wove paper, the sheet belongs to a process of developing figures rather than a single completed scene. Its interest lies in the variety of subjects considered together, where differing bodies and attributes can share the artist’s attention. The work offers an encounter with composition in preparation, preserving several possibilities within one surface of study.

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