Study Sheet, Pen-and-pencil Drawing By Roger De La Fresnaye

Roger de La Fresnaye was a French painter and sculptor.

He was associated with the Cubist movement.
Beginning in 1908, he studied under Maurice Denis and Paul Sérusier at the Académie Ranson in Paris. He had a painting studio and a sculpture studio built at the Château de Beauvernay in Saint-Nizier-sous-Charlieu,a property belonging to his maternal ancestors where he had spent most of his vacationssince early childhood. There he hosted his close friend Jean-Louis Gampert, Jean Hugo and his wife Valentine Gross—both painters—Irène Lagut, Alfred Courmes (his only student), as well as musicians such as Georges Auric, Erik Satie, Francis Poulenc, and others.

Drafted during World War I, he contracted tuberculosis and was discharged in 1918. His declining health led him to move away from large-scale Cubist compositions and focus on more intimate and realistic works, often imbued with lyricism and spirituality.

The work is signed in the lower right corner of the signature block.