Study of a Triton

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Prints and Drawings

1748/53

François Boucher
French, 1703-1770

Boucher's drawings of the human anatomy reveal his thorough academic training. This vigorous drawing is a study for the triton in the painting Sunrise (1753) in the Wallace Collection, London, which was commissioned as a tapestry design in 1748.

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Artist: François Boucher
Title: Study of a Triton
Origin: France
Date: 1748–1753
Medium: Black chalk, with stumping with traces of red chalk, heightened with white chalk and traces of graphite, on tan laid paper
Dimensions: 221 × 270 mm
Credit Line: Helen Regenstein Collection
Reference Number: 1965.240R

Harold Joachim, French Drawings and Sketchbooks of the 18th Century (Chicago, 1977), no. 1A12.
Nathan Goldstein, Figure Drawing (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1993), p. 251 (ill.).
Suzanne Folds McCullagh, “ ‘A Lasting Monument’: The Regenstein Collection at The Art Institute of Chicago,” The Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 26:1 (2000), p. 8.
Suzanne Folds McCullagh, “Head of a Sea God, 1730/40,” The Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 26:1 (2000), pp. 46-47, cat. 18, fig. 17.

Washington, D.C., The National Gallery of Art, "François Boucher in North American Collectons: 100 Drawings," December 23, 1973-March 17, 1974, cat. 69; traveled to The Art Institute of Chicago, April 4-May 12, 1974.
The Art Institute of Chicago, "The Helen Regenstein Collection of European Drawings," 1974, pp. 72-73, cat. 35 (ill.), cat. by Harold Joachim.
The Art Institute of Chicago, "Selected Works of 18th Century French Art in the Collections of The Art Institute of Chicago," January 24-March 28, 1976, p. 54, cat. 42 (ill.).
Paris, Musée du Louvre, "Dessins français de l’Art Institute de Chicago de Watteau à Picasso," October 15, 1976-January 17, 1977, n.p., cat. 9 (ill.).
Frankfurt am Main, Germany, Städtische Galerie im Städelschen Kunstinstitut, "Französische Zeichnungen aus dem Art Institute of Chicago," February 10-April 10, 1977, pp. 28-29, cat. 9 (ill.).
The Art Institute of Chicago, "Great Drawings from The Art Institute of Chicago: The Harold Joachim Years 1958-1983," July 24-September 30, 1985, pp. 94-95, cat. 39 (ill.), cat. by Martha Tedeschi; traveled to The St. Louis Art Museum, March 10-May 16,1986.

Charles-Emile Picard, Paris [Washington D.C. 1973-1974]. Sold by Jacques Seligmann and Company, New York, to the Art Institute, 1965.

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