Gabriel Jacques de Saint-Aubin (1724–1780), Momus, 1752
, Red and black chalk, with touches of white chalk, Purchased as the gift of the Fellows
, 1954.9
The present drawing depicts Momus, the god of madness and a popular comic figure, holding a scroll announcing a recueil of costumes for a masked ball held by Louis-Philippe d'Orléans and his wife Louise-Henriette de Bourbon-Conty at the château Saint-Cloud in 1752. The single-figure composition and use of trois crayons are rare in Saint-Aubin's work; this sheet may be among his last large format drawings before he abandoned work on this scale.