Drapery study for the Raising of the Son of the Widow of Nain,

1816

A gifted student of Jacques-Louis David, Wicar spent the early years of the French Revolution copying antiquities in Italy, where he built a reputation as an accomplished neoclassical painter, draftsman, and engraver. In 1797, following the rise of Napoleon I, Wicar was appointed commissioner of sciences and the arts, with the primary responsibility of identifying Italian artworks to be seized for the enrichment of French museums. In this capacity, Wicar managed to amass a vast personal collection of old-master drawings that included sheets by Michelangelo and Raphael, as well as works by major seventeenth- and eighteenth-century European artists. His extensive knowledge of Italian Renaissance drawing technique is clearly evident in his control of black and white chalk in this brilliant drapery study.