Aeneas in the underworld, ca. 1716 – 1717

About the Work

Antoine Coypel was an influential and successful painter who directed the Paris academy from 1714 to 1722. He is thought to have been one of Watteau’s promoters. This sheet, however, stands for the academic conception of drawing entirely contrary to Watteau’s: as preparation for painting in a series of individual, precisely controlled steps, from initial ideas to compositional and figural studies to a final preliminary drawing – like this one – after which the painting was executed.