Figure Standing under a Stone Arch

Mid-eighteenth-century artists who sojourned at the French Academy in Rome had developed a taste for fanciful architectural drawings, nourished on the details of a visionary architecture influenced by Piranesi’s contemporary engravings. Jean-Laurent Legeay, who stayed at the French Academy from 1738 to 1742 produced fantastic compositions throughout a long, eventful career in Germany, England, and Toulouse.

This etching is from the series Views of Ruins.