"Into this Wild Abyss..."

This week's series of sketches are based on artwork pulled at random out of my many reference folders of work.  Plenty of artists and illustrators will tell you that trying to figure out how the best did their work can often improve your own work.

The above is from Alexandere Cabanel's 1868 painting, Fallen Angel. Cabanel (1823-1889) was an academic painter and professor at the École des Beaux-Arts and was frequently elected to the jury of the Paris Salon.  These positions show him as having a hand in steering the direction of fine are during La Belle Époque.