Léon Jean Pétua (1846-1921), Sketch For Suzanne Au Bain, Oil, Salon Of 1880

Léon Jean Pétua (1846-1921)
Sketch for Suzanne and the Elders (1880) or Suzanne in the Bath
Oil on canvas mounted on cardboard
36 x 26.8 cm (cardboard)
47.5 x 39 cm (frame)
Signed lower left: L.Pétua
This sketch is preparatory for a painting exhibited at the 1880 Salon "Suzanne and the Elders"
Good general condition - some missing parts - needs cleaning

Léon-Jean Pétua, born in 1846 in Besançon and died in 1921 in Zurich, was a French painter from Franche-Comté. He began his artistic training at the Municipal School of Drawing in Besançon under the tutelage of Franceschi. At the same time, he worked as an apprentice photographer at A. Lumière in 1846. Pétua then continued his studies at the Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he was a student of Jean-Léon Gérôme. In 1871-1872, he obtained a higher diploma from the City of Paris for the teaching of drawing. In 1875, he became a professor at the Technikum in Zurich.
This sketch throws out the artist's first thoughts, and includes some variations with the final version exhibited in 1880. The painting from the Salon was sold at Christies New York in 1989.