Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00011437Male Academy with Wings
About the Artwork
Academically trained artists often practiced drawing live models. Called academies, these figure studies occasionally served as preparatory drawings for paintings. Some artists crafted their academies to appeal to collectors interested in contemplating technical skill and inventiveness. Boucher may have imaginatively given wings to this male nude, who does not appear in any known painting, to demonstrate his ingenuity by transforming the model into a mythological figure.
Inscriptions
verso, upper left, in graphite: M; center right, in graphite: [c--c 2ff?] [sideways]; lower right, in graphite: [illegible, partially erased inscription four lines long]; lower center, in graphite: M[illegible]; lower right, in graphite: pr cadre
Exhibition history
A Painting in Focus: Jean-Bernard Restout's Sleep and the French Royal Academy. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 14-May 23, 1999). French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 26-October 28, 2001); Dahesh Museum of Art (February 19-May 18, 2002). Elegance and Intrigue: French Society in 18th-century Prints and Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 16-November 6, 2016).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- François Boucher (French, 1703–1770)
- Date
- 1745–50
- Medium
- red chalk on cream laid paper
- Dimensions
- Overall: 30.1 x 37.1 cm (11 7/8 x 14 5/8 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- Bequest of Muriel Butkin
- Accession no.
- 2008.350
More by François Boucher in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00011437
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