(Paris 1729-1785) A female nude, seated, black and white chalk, on greyish-brown laid paper, inscribed "Il Subleyras fece" in pen and brown ink, 39,1 x 29,1 cm, mounted, framed, (Sch)

Provenance: Alessandro Maggiori (Lugt 3005b), with inscription and date "A. Maggiori Campio in Roma nel 1803" on the reverse;
Private collection, Belgium.

Literature: Compare: M. Sandoz, Hughes Taraval, Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire de l'Art Francais, 1972.

Hughes Taraval was the pupil of his father, Guillaume Thomas Taraval, court painter of Frederick I from Schweden, and lived in Stockholm from 1732-1750. At his father’s death he moved back to Paris, where he became a pupil of Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre at the Paris Academy. In 1756 he won the Prix de Rome with his painting "Job Reproached by his wife" (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Marseille). From 1756-59 he was active under Carle Vanloo at the Ecole Royale des élèves protégés. From 1759-1763 he was a pupil of Charles-Joseph Natoire at the Académie de France in Rome. Above all Taraval was a decorative painter and received commissions for the Château de Bellevue (1767), the Ecole Militaire (1773), the Collège de France (1777), the chateau of Versailles (1780) and Fontainebleau (1781). Moreover, he executed several gobelins between 1777-1783. The figure of the present drawing was used again for the drawing „A muse in the company of graces and putti" (Christie's London, 12th Dec. 1985, lot 401)