The highlights of this book are the 85 color plates of Prud’hon’s academic figure drawings, or ‘acadamies’ as they are known. These drawings dignified and stunningly beautiful. Unfortunately, Prud’hon’s drawing techniques have been lost and there is no definitive work describing how they were produced. Many of these drawings have unfinished sections and you can see not only the basic structure, but the construction process as well. This context of Academy training in drawing is particularly important in the case of Prud’hon. Delacroix noted how, even late in life, Prud’hon “habitually spent all his evenings in the studio of his student, M. Trezel, drawing after live models … as if himself were the student.” Prud’hon was not so unusual in making académies throughout his entire career; he was extremely unusual in making more and more académies as his career advanced, especially as a substitute for finished paintings.
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