Louis Galloche

Louis Galloche studied drapery with meticulous attention, often using mannequins in his studio to explore poses without the constraint of a live model. This drawing was originally part of an album assembled by the Duvivier family of engravers and medal makers originally from Liège at the end of the eighteenth century. The album was dispersed at a sale in 1987, with some sheets sold as by Galloche and others as by the “circle of Coypel.” A second drawing of this figure, bearing the same number (345) and incorporating the facial features and hair of a model, also belonged to this album (sold Christie's, London, 3 July 2007, lot 121).
There is some question as to which painting these model studies relate. The author of the 2007 sale catalogue entry suggested they may be preparatory for the figure of goddess Diana in the Race of Hippomenes and Atlanta, now in a private collection. While the goddess is nude and assumes a different, reclining pose, she does raise her left hand in a similar manner. Marie-Catherine Sahut (in Mastery and Elegance, 1998, no. 32, note 1) had previously proposed that the Morgan sheet was preparatory for the kneeling figure of Volumnia in the painting Coriolanus in the Camp of the Volscians (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Orléans). The upper body of the figure in the painting corresponds to that in the study, but the figure in the painting is kneeling, and not seated. In neither painting does the figure assume the same pose, wear the same clothing, or hold a scroll in her lap, suggesting that if this study is preparatory the work to which it relates is yet to be identified.