Seated Female Nude

For many years in a private Chicago collection and long desired for the museum, this striking drawing appeared for auction in 1996 and was purchased by Dorothy Edinburg for her collection at the Art Institute of Chicago. It is one of about 100 male and female nude studies in black and white chalk on blue paper that the artist made between 1810 and 1821. This model has been identified as the dark-haired beauty Marguerite, who famously caught the eye of Frederick William III, king of Prussia, in Prud’hon’s studio in 1814.