NICOLAS MIGNARD (TROYES 1606-1668 PARIS)

Mignard executed several versions of the Visitation, all of which are currently in Avignon, for which two rare composition studies are known. Figure studies in red chalk form the vast majority of the artist’s graphic corpus, like the present sheet, which is preparatory for the clothing of the Virgin Mary in a Visitation Mignard painted in 1639 for the Marquis de Gonzague, now in the Pénitents Gris chapel, Avignon (see A. Schnapper, Mignard d’Avignon (1606-1668), exhib. cat., Avignon, Palais des Papes, 1979, no. 13, ill.). Mignard was left-handed, evident in the hatching on the present sheet.