Théodore Leblanc

Théodore Leblanc kept a studio in Paris where artists dropped by to sketch after work. He had a habit of slipping a scrap of paper into his coat pocket—just big enough to catch the light on a passing stranger’s face. That’s how he ended up drawing a lone man in North Africa, not as a portrait but as a question mark in charcoal. He never signed the sheet, but the loose linework still pulls you in. Look for it under the blunt title “Male figure, probably North African” at the Musée d’Orsay’s print study room.