Bacchus Sleeping (after Poussin)

Leon Dabo's ink drawing demonstrates the academic practice of copying Old Master compositions to study form and technique. This reclining figure study, based on Nicolas Poussin's classical mythology paintings, showcases the careful hatching and anatomical precision demanded by late 19th-century artistic training. Young American artists like Dabo worked from canonical European sources to master figure drawing before developing independent styles. The composition—a languid male nude amid drapery and vegetation—represents the neoclassical tradition that dominated art school curricula and shaped American artistic practice in the Gilded Age.