Schets van een zittend mannelijk naakt en een detailschets van een hand 1765 - 1781

Jean Grandjean made this drawing of a nude male figure with chalk on paper sometime in the late 18th century. We see the figure seated, holding a staff, with a detailed sketch of a hand floating above. This drawing would likely have been made in preparation for a history painting. Grandjean spent time in Rome and would have been part of the larger Neoclassical movement, which looked to the art of ancient Greece and Rome for inspiration. A central belief of the Royal Academy was that the male nude was the most beautiful and appropriate form for the communication of moral ideas. But of course, it was only the elite who could afford to visit the academy and study these forms. Art was very much tied to class. To understand the social context of this work, we might look at exhibition reviews, student records, and the writings of art critics from the time. Such sources help us understand the institutions that shaped art in the 1700s.