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| Charles Le Brun Figure Study ca. 1650 drawing Musée du Louvre |
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| Charles Le Brun Figure Study ca. 1650-60 drawing (study for vault decoration) Musée du Louvre |
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| Charles Le Brun Figure Study ca. 1665-70 drawing Musée du Louvre |
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| Charles Le Brun Figure Study ca. 1665-73 drawing (study for painting) Musée du Louvre |
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| Charles Le Brun Figure Study ca. 1665-73 drawing (study for painting) Musée du Louvre |
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| Charles Le Brun Figure Study ca. 1672 drawing (study for ceiling decoration) Musée du Louvre |
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| Charles Le Brun Figure Study ca. 1672 drawing (study for ceiling decoration) Musée du Louvre |
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| Charles Le Brun Figure Study ca. 1672-74 drawing Musée du Louvre |
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| Charles Le Brun Figure Study ca. 1679 drawing (study for painting) Musée du Louvre |
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| Charles Le Brun Figure Study ca. 1679-84 drawing (study for vault decoration) Musée du Louvre |
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| Charles Le Brun Figure Study ca. 1679-84 drawing (study for vault decoration) Musée du Louvre |
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| Charles Le Brun Figure Study ca. 1679-84 drawing (study for vault decoration) Musée du Louvre |
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| Charles Le Brun Figure Study ca. 1679-84 drawing (study for vault decoration) Musée du Louvre |
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| Charles Le Brun Figure Study ca. 1688 drawing (study for painting) Musée du Louvre |
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| Charles Le Brun Figure Study ca. 1688-89 drawing (study for painting) Musée du Louvre |
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| Charles Le Brun Figure Study before 1690 drawing (study for painting) Musée du Louvre |
"When the academy figure first strips himself, there is a symmetry and accordance in all the limbs; but when he is screwed up into a posture, there appears a constraint and want of balance. It cannot be supposed that when a man has the support of ropes to preserve him in a posture of exertion, the same action of muscles can be displayed as if the limbs were supported by their own energy; and in all academy drawings we may perceive something wrong where the ropes are not represented along with the figure. In natural action there always is a consent and symmetry in every part. When a man clenches his fist in passion, the other arm does not lie in elegant relaxation. When the face is stern and vindictive, there is energy in the whole frame. When a man rises from his seat in impassioned gesture, there pervades in every limb and feature a certain tension and straining. This universal state of body it is difficult to excite in those who are accustomed to sit to painters; I see them watch my eye, and where they see me intent, they exert the muscles. The painter, therefore, cannot trust to the man throwing himself into a natural position; he must direct him, and be himself able to catch, as it were intuitively, what is natural, and reject what is constrained. Besides, those soldiers and mechanics who are employed as academy figures are often stiff and unwieldy, and hard labour has impaired in them the natural and easy motion of the joints.
– Charles Bell, from Essays on the Anatomy of Expression in Painting (1806)