Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863)
Sheet with Two Studies of a Female Nude
1847
Graphite
Samuel Courtauld Trust: Princes Gate Bequest, 1978
The nudes juxtaposed in this study relate to different projects on which Delacroix was engaged in the late 1840s. The figure combing her hair on the left is a preparatory sketch for Le Lever, a small painting inspired by Goethe's drama Faust and exhibited at the Salon of 1850–51. Delacroix's inscription at the bottom of the sheet suggests that the figure on the right represents Eve reaching for the apple.