Known for his portraits and his genre scenes, Jacques Sablet first studied in the workshop of his father Jacob. In 1775 Sablet began training under Joseph-Marie Vien, whom he eventually followed to Rome. Sablet aspired to become a history painter, and even won the Prize of the Academy of Fine Arts of Parma in 1778 with his painting The Death of Pallas. The following year he worked on a painting of Venus Protecting Helen from the Fury of Aeneas, a subject taken from Virgil’s Aeneid, and the subject of our drawing. The present quick sketch, with floating and fanciful lines, traced with a wavy and confident pen, is preparatory for a more accomplished sketch in oil on paper that is now in the LACMA, San Francisco (inv. M.2000.179.27). In addition to highlighting a certain taste for architecture and perspective, our drawing offers special insight into Sablet's creative method.