Study of a Courtier.

Among Gérôme's varied oeuvre, executed with attention to historical detail and exquisite technique, is a group of paintings depicting scenes from seventeenth-century French history. Among the most famous is the canvas “L'Eminence Grise,” 1873 (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), set during the reign of Louis XIII, and the “Reception of the Grand Conde by Louis XIV” of 1874 (Musée d'Orsay, Paris). These works continued the tradition of the troubadour paintings made popular earlier in the century and appealed to a revival of interest in pre-revolutionary France.
Here, the artist has drawn a gentleman of middle age with a long wig and face-framing curls typical of the later decades of the century under Louis XIV. The courtier wears a lacy jabot tied in a bow, a greatcoat with large, buttoned-back sleeves revealing a chemise beneath, breeches, hose, and heeled shoes. He leans on a slim stick with a loop on one end and carries his trimmed hat under his arm. A bandolier crosses his chest, and his sword hilt is visible below his hand. His fingers clutch his gloves or a crumpled document. While his body faces the picture plane, his left foot is angled toward the viewer, and he looks over his right shoulder at something happening in the larger composition. The costume is less elaborate than Louis XIV's in the Orsay picture, but the pose with the hat and walking stick is common to fashion prints depicting chevaliers around 1700.
The figure is overlaid with a grid, indicating that Gérôme used the drawing to transfer the figure to another support. A canvas containing a corresponding figure has not been identified among the artist's French history paintings.