The ‘correctly' drawn silhouetted figure and the inscription ‘DESSIN FRANCAIS' [‘French Drawing'] found in T03845 allude not only to the conservatism of art institutions but also to the contemporary revival of interest in the traditions of French art which had been greatly spurred by the re-opening in 1920 of the galleries in the Louvre in which the French collection was hung. With the rather curious pose of the silhouetted figure in ‘The Fig-Leaf', Picabia appears to have alluded to one of the celebrated masterpieces in the Louvre collection, ‘Oedipus and the Sphinx', by Ingres, a key figure in the neo-classical movement of the early nineteenth century and champion of the relative importance of line over colour in painting. Executed in 1808, this painting shows from a side view the almost naked figure of Oedipus who, leaning forward to reply to the riddles posed by the Sphinx, supports his left elbow on his bent left leg which is resting on a boulder. The pose of Oedipus is closely echoed in that of the figure in T03845. The position of the lower foot of Picabia's figure, however, indicates that, in contrast to the Ingres painting, it is the figure's right leg that is bent and therefore the genitals would be visible were it not for the fig-leaf. With this small reversal of the positioning of the figure's legs Picabia made overt what was otherwise the disguised censorship or prudery involved in the careful positioning of limbs and drapery in traditional academic art.