Young Man Leaning Forward with Outstretched Arms (Study for Soldiers Distributing Bread to the Poor)

This unfinished sketch is a study for Isidore Pils's painting Soldiers Distributing Bread to the Poor, which was inspired by an actual scene he witnessed in the center of Paris. Here the artist focused his attention on the youth's upper body and left the legs lightly sketched in, indicating that he must have executed the sketch after he had already worked out the larger composition (where the legs are obscured by a low wall).