Phryne before Her Judges

In this dramatic drawing, the mythological courtesan Phryne stands accused of blasphemy, her nude body exposed before a panel of judges. The scene is rendered in black chalk, capturing the intensity of the moment with stark contrasts and expressive lines. This work, made late in the artist's life while in exile in Brussels, shows a departure from his earlier large-scale historical paintings. Here, the focus is intimate and psychological, exploring raw emotion through close-up figures. The two male figures at the center, possibly têtes d’expression, are studies in conveying feeling through pose and facial contortion, adding to the drawing's enigmatic quality. The artist himself embraced this shift, noting that he was simply "throwing down the mad ideas that came into my head," highlighting a newfound freedom in his creative process.