Standing Male Figure with Left Arm Extended 1710 - 1777

Charles-Joseph Natoire made this red chalk drawing, Standing Male Figure with Left Arm Extended, sometime in the 18th century. Here we see Natoire's interest in the male form, a common theme in academic art of the time. But the work also tells us about the artistic institutions that shaped artists like Natoire. Trained in the French academy system, Natoire would have honed his skills by drawing from life and from classical sculptures. This drawing may well be a preparatory study, or, it could be a demonstration of the artist's skill, made to impress potential patrons. To fully understand drawings like this, we need to look at the social and institutional context in which they were made. Archival sources, like the records of the French Royal Academy, can help us better understand the role of drawings in 18th-century artistic training and production. Examining these resources allows us to see art not as isolated objects, but as products of a complex social world.