André Leroux was a French painter and printmaker recognised for his sensitive portraits, nudes, and still lifes. A pupil of Jean-Pierre Laurens at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, he worked within the Symbolist and Post-Impressionist traditions. His style blended soft colours with intricate details inspired by Academic painting and drawing. Throughout his career, Leroux exhibited in several Parisian galleries and, in 1925,he was appointed professor at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris.
Our drawing is preparatory to Leroux’s painting Vers la Lumière (fig. 1). This powerfully homoerotic composition illustrates three male figures, each personifying the heavens, the human sphere, and the netherworld. Our drawing is preparatory forthe figure portrayed in the process of ascending to the sky in the final painting, which was exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français in 1936. The muscularity of our figure’s lean body is emphasised by his tense pose, which Leroux masterfully rendered by imbuing his Academic drawing technique with Symbolist spirituality.