Corot saw both the triumph and decline of the neoclassical landscape tradition, and the rise of Impressionism. He drew prolifically throughout his career, and frequently stressed the importance of drawing. In mid-career he often made beautifully observed figure drawings. The sitter in this work is unidentified. Many of Corot’s drawings feature figures and the finest reveal an original approach to the human form which is only equalled in his paintings by some of his intimate portraits of friends and family, and in the mysterious fantasy ‘portraits’ of young women of the 1860s and 1870s.