Nude Study of an Old Man

before 1852

Nude Study of an Old Man, before 1852. Henri Lehmann (French, 1814–1882). Graphite and stumping; sheet: 31.1 x 21 cm (12 1/4 x 8 1/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Muriel Butkin 2018.44 In preparation for executing largescale paintings, artists often produced studies of individual components of their compositions in order to work through their ideas. Lehmann made this figural study for a mural in the old Hôtel de Ville in Paris, destroyed by fire during the Commune in 1871. Here, the artist explored how to render deep shadows on the nude male body.