Louis de Boullogne the Younger

This drawing of two male nudes is known as an academy, as it was produced during a life drawing class at the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in Paris. Employing the blue paper as a midtone, Louis de Boullogne, a professor at the school, used white chalk to describe the fall of light on forms and black chalk to define the modeling and shadows. While the models’ facial features appear generic, the close study of their bodies is particularly vivid.

Beginning in 1706, professors at the Royal Academy in Paris added a new dimension to their students’ exercises in drawing from live models: the double academie, showing two figures posed together. In this work Louis Boullogne the Younger presents the soft, limp form of one nude directly alongside the firm musculature of another, allowing their gestures and facial expressions to extend this visually provocative contrast. Cross-hatching in both white and black chalk adds volume to their forms, with a stump used to smooth the regions of deepest shadow. Other drawings suggest that Boullogne developed this pair for a larger depiction of St. Genevieve Interceding for the Sick, in which the out-stretched arm becomes a gesture of supplication for healing. He produced many figure drawings throughout his long career as a student, teacher, and eventually director of the Academy, then succeeded to the prestigious post of First Painter to the King.