Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825). Houdon's flayed back. Black stone (slightly faded). Initialled by Eugène David (L.839). 40 x 23,7 cm. Provenance: Unidentified mark. In his Notice sur David, the first published bibliographical note on the artist, published in Pausanias français in 1806, Chaussard states (page 148), with regard to his first stay in Rome, from 1775 to 178: "He left for Rome; he studied there as a beginner; he wrote to his friends at the time that he was only busy drawing Houdon's Ecorché" (quoted in P. Rosenberg and L.-A. Prat, Jacques-Louis David 1748-1825. Catalogue raisonné des dessins, Milan, 2002, vol. 2, p. 1218, no. M3).