Male Nude, Francois Bouçher; red chalk over black chalk on paper; roughly 20 x 13 inches ( 50 x 33 cm); in the collection of the Morgan Library and Museum, NY. There are both zoomable and downloadable imges on their site.
18th century French artist Francois Bouçher, who is more commonly noted for his Rococo drawings and paintings of sensuous women, here gives us a straightforward male nude study.
The forms of the musculature are so clearly defined that the drawing could be used as anatomical reference. He also gives the figure a sense of dimension and solidity, as well as a feeling of gravity in the leg that is supporting most of the model’s weight.
As was common with master chalk drawings of this time, the tones are rendered with hatching rather than being smoothy blended. Notice also the way he has accentuated parts of the outline of the figure, again contributing to turning the form and suggesting weight and volume.