Three Figures (18th century): Art, History and Details

Three Figures (18th century) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Pierre-Jacques Volaire (French, 1729–1802).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Volaire’s sketch of two women with a child is an example of the numerous figure studies he executed on blue-gray prepared paper with black and white chalk. This drawing likely did not relate to a later painting, but instead seems to have been produced as a visual record of the artist’s creative experimentation.

Object facts

• Title: Three Figures
• Date: 18th century
• Creator attribution: Pierre-Jacques Volaire (French, 1729–1802)
• Culture: France
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: black and white chalk on blue-gray prepared paper
• Dimensions: Sheet: 26.3 x 21 cm (10 3/8 x 8 1/4 in.)
• Collection: DR - French
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 2018.48

Collection credit

Bequest of Muriel Butkin

Further reading listed by the museum

• Beck-Saiello, Emilie, and Pierre-Jacques Antoine Volaire. Pierre Jacques Volaire, 1729-1799: dit le Chevalier Volaire. Paris: Arthena, 2010.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.