Charles de LA FOSSE (Paris, 1636 - 1716) Ceiling figure of a naked man, study of a hand holding a cup (?) Three pencils. On the reverse, an inscription in pen and brown ink showing: "n° 106". 42.4 x 26.1 cm (at first fillet: 43.5 x 26.8 cm) Provenance: Anonymous sale, Me Osenat, Fontainebleau, April 1, 2018, no. 106. Bibliography: Clémentine Gustin Gomez, Charles de La Fosse, œuvres inédites, nouveautés et publications, www.delafossegustin.wordpress.com, no. 2018-D10, reproduced. La Fosse's Rubenian style of drawing is characteristic in this study. The sanguine and white chalk highlights form a warm contrast with the shadows rendered by thick black stone crosshatching. The body is encircled by a broad and firm line in red chalk. This assertive body presence is found in the studies for the great royal decorations executed around 1700 (dome of the church of Les Invalides, cul-de-four of the royal chapel of Versailles). The study of the hand holding an object can be compared to that of the putto holding a cup, astride a panther in Le Triomphe de Bacchus (Musée du Louvre) commissioned in 1700 for a door overlay at the Château de Meudon and now kept in the Musée du Louvre (see: C. Gustin-Gomez, op. cit. supra, p. 129, reproduced on p. 90).