Eugène Delacroix was one of the greatest painters of the first half of the nineteenth century, the last history painter in Europe, and the embodiment of Romanticism in the visual arts. From an early age, he frequently visited the Musée du Louvre, where he made sketches after works by Raphael, Titian, Veronese, and Rubens. Delacroix’s Standing Nude Young Woman likely originates from his formative years (1816–1821), when he began exploring the eloquence of gesture and relief that were to characterize several of his later masterpieces. This drawing reveals a correctness in the handling of the human body, an important aspect of any artist’s development, and one that must have played a significant role in Delacroix’s career as a grand history painter.