La gloire planant sur le monde 

Pierre-Paul Prud'hon made this drawing, "La gloire planant sur le monde," using black and white chalk on blue paper. It's a preparatory sketch, likely for a larger allegorical painting. The choice of chalk is interesting. It is a readily available material, yet capable of great subtlety. Prud'hon coaxes a range of tones from it here, giving the figure volume and a sense of movement. Notice the rough texture of the paper, which catches the chalk and creates a soft, diffused effect, and the lines that define the angel's form. The way the sketch is made is important too. Prud'hon was working in a world of rapidly changing social structures. By using relatively simple materials and a quick, gestural technique, he's nodding to a new kind of immediacy, moving away from the highly finished, laboured style of earlier academic art. This sketch isn't just a study; it's a statement about the changing nature of art itself.