Study for Astyanax’s Nurse
ca. 1812
Medium
Black and white chalk, with stumping, on blue paper
Dimensions
Sheet: 11 5/16 × 7 13/16 in. (28.8 × 19.9 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Louis de Bayser, 2015
Accession Number
2015.652.1
Tags
Art Historical Context
Pierre-Paul Prud'hon, a leading French artist of the Napoleonic era (17581823), created this delicate *Study for Astyanax’s Nurse* around1812. Bridging Neoclassicism emerging Romanticism, Prud'h was renowned for his elegant, lit figures drawn from mythology and history. Here, the profile of a woman—likely the Trojan nurse of Hector's infant Astyanax from Virgil's *Aeneid*—evokes quiet pathos amid the Trojan War's tragedy, where Astyanax meets a grim fate. This preparatory drawing captures Prud'hon's process for larger compositions, emphasizing emotional depth over strict classical ideals. Exe...
About the Artist
Pierre Paul Prud'hon
Pierre Paul Prud'hon (1758–1823) was a French painter and draughtsman whose dreamy, sensuous art occupied a singular position between the Neoclassicism and Romanticism that competed for dominance in French painting around 1800. Born in Cluny in Burgundy, he received his early artistic training at the Dijon Academy before winning the Prix de Rome of the Estates of Burgundy, which allowed him to spe...