A Cleric Accompanying a Lady on Her Morning Walk
1778/80
Medium
red chalk and graphite on beige laid paper, laid down
Dimensions
overall: 28.5 x 21.1 cm (11 1/4 x 8 5/16 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Gertrude Laughlin Chanler
Accession Number
2000.9.16
Art Historical Context
Step into the elegant world of late 18th-century France withA Cleric Accompanying a Lady Her Morning Walk*, a drawing by Pierre Thomas Lec, created around 1778–80. This intimate scene captures a moment of refined social interaction: a clergyman strolling alongside a fashionable lady, evoking the leisurely promenades of the pre-Revolutionary aristocracy. Le Clerc, a skilled French draughtsman known for his genre studies, renders the figures with graceful poise against a simple backdrop, highlighting the era's emphasis on etiquette and hierarchy. Executed in red chalk and graphite on beige laid...