Relais, Avenue des Champs-Élysées, Paris (recto); Scene from the Life of Odysseus (verso)
Medium
Pen and black ink, with brush and gray and brown washes, over graphite (recto); graphite and pen and black ink (verso) on off-white wove paper
Dimensions
22.2 × 29.7 cm (8 3/4 × 11 3/4 in.)
Classification
pen and ink drawings
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
214356
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
When the young and ambitious Eckersberg entered Jacques-Louis David’s Parisian studio in 1811, he was encouraged to make studies after nature and therefore carried a sketchbook with him while moving through the city and the surrounding countryside. In a diary entry dated September 15, 1812, he recorded a tour of the Champs-Élysées, rendered here with deft handling of perspective and the witty detail of a young woman adjusting her stocking.