Standing Nude Seen from the Back

French sculptor Charles Despiau made primarily portrait busts and female nudes. Although he trained with Rodin from 1907 to 1914, he eventually rejected Rodin's romanticism in favor of a more classical approach. Despiau's drawings include many red chalk sketches drawn from the model, such as the present example. Typically Despiau would focus on the volumes of the torso, treating head, feet and hands more cursorily. A few of his drawings are studies for specific sculptures but most of them were done as practice to familiarize himself with the shape of the human body in various positions.