Poor folly (preparatory drawing)

Preparatory drawing for Poor Folly. The drawing, although clearly preparatory to the print, is still very different from it. It does present the same arrangement of light and shade, with a notable chiaroscuro effect achieved by the light entering through the access to the architectural element on the right of the composition. The rest of the sketch is a tangle of straight lines and brushstroke curves that is difficult to interpret, although the girl who rushes into the scene with her arms outstretched, but only with one head, also appears. In this case, the young woman does not address a group of old women but throws herself into the arms of a male figure, perhaps a French soldier, as he is wearing a uniform very similar to the one depicted in numerous prints of the Disasters. She is pursued by a woman, not two as in the engraving, who possibly implores her not to continue with this madness. Above her rises a misty, almost flaming sky.