# Standing Academic Male Nude (recto); Sketch of Upper Arm (verso)

**Eugène Delacroix** (French, 1798–1863)  
1816  
Black chalk and charcoal with stumping, heightened with white chalk (recto), and black chalk and charcoal with stumping (verso), on dark tan laid paper  
59 × 45 cm (23 1/4 × 17 3/4 in.)

Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1977.350. [The museum's record](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/113856).

## About this work

A male model stands posed in the studio, modelled in black chalk and charcoal, softened by stumping and lifted with white highlights on tan paper. Delacroix made the drawing in 1816, at about eighteen, while training in the studio of Pierre-Narcisse Guérin and at the École des Beaux-Arts, where drawing from the live model was the foundation of an artist’s education. Such academic studies were exercises in anatomy and light, and this one shows the young artist mastering the discipline he would later bend to the passionate ends of Romanticism. On the back is a sketch of an upper arm.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

Eugène Delacroix painted this in 1816, aged 18. It is now at the Art Institute of Chicago.

### What you’re looking at

A work made of black chalk and charcoal with stumping, heightened with white chalk (recto), and black chalk and charcoal with stumping (verso), on dark tan laid paper.

_Description from the Art Institute of Chicago._

### How it was made

- **Chalk.** Natural black, red and white chalks. Used together on toned paper they could give the warmth of flesh with very little effort, and they were favourites for studies from life.
- **Charcoal.** Burnt willow or vine. It smudges and wipes away easily, which made it the natural tool for working out a composition.
- **Laid paper.** Handmade on a mould of close-set wires, which leave fine parallel lines you can see when the sheet is held to the light.

### [Eugène Delacroix](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/eugene-delacroix)

French, 1798–1863; born in Charenton-Saint-Maurice; died in Paris

Delacroix trained under Pierre-Narcisse Guérin and emerged in the 1820s as the leader of French Romanticism, with dramatic, richly coloured canvases such as The Death of Sardanapalus and Liberty Leading the People. A six-month journey to Morocco and Algeria in 1832 gave him a store of sketches and memories that fed his work for decades. Later he decorated public buildings in Paris, among them the Chapel of the Holy Angels at Saint-Sulpice, and his journal is a key record of his thinking.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

## Facts

- Type: Drawing and Watercolor
- Culture: France
- The artist was 18
- Real size: about 23 × 18 in (59 × 45 cm). The 18 × 24 in print is close to life size.
- Century: 19th century
- Colour: brown
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/295.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/295/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68; 20 × 30 in $86; 24 × 36 in $108; 30 × 40 in $148
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164; 20 × 30 in $208; 24 × 36 in $258; 30 × 40 in $338
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98; 18 × 24 in $118; 20 × 30 in $148; 24 × 36 in $178; 30 × 40 in $228
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3; 20 × 30 in $5; 24 × 36 in $5; 30 × 40 in $5

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/standing-academic-male-nude-recto-sketch-of-upper-arm-verso-aic-113856).