Fides.

Drawing, pen and brown ink, brown wash, heightened with white, 44,5 x 28,5 cm, laid paper with watermark "AP", signed and dated at lower right "G.L. Godecharle 1795".

Godecharle (1750-1835) was one of the most important neoclassical Belgian sculptors. Empress Maria Theresa awarded him a stipend that enabled him to travel for his studies, first to Paris, then to Rome. He received official commissions under Napoleon and under William I of the Netherlands. The present drawing was probably a study drawing for a sculpture monument of Fides (Faith). Godecharle made other sculpture groups representing the Virtues, the most famous being his Charitas, now in the Museum of Fine Arts in Brussels.