Drawing of a male violinist and partially obscured harpist playing their instruments, by the French painter and printmaker. Ink and pencil on paper, ca. 1900, with sketch of a female figure on verso (and color identifications "jaune," "rose" etc., signed with initials lower right recto. 8.5 x 5.2 inches (21.5 x 13.3 cm), unframed. With surface soiling and some pale staining, else fine. 

The French cubist painter and printmaker, Jacques Villon, elder brother of Marcel Duchamp, Raymond Duchamp-Villon and Suzanne Duchamp-Crotti, moved to Montmartre in 1894, adopting his pseudonym as a tribute to the French medieval poet François Villon. In Montmartre, home to an expanding art community, Villon lost interest in the pursuit of a legal career he had promised his father, and for the next 10 years he worked in graphic media, contributing cartoons and illustrations to Parisian newspapers as well as drawing color posters. It is likely the present drawing was accomplished during this period. He moved away from Montmartre in 1906 and became known as one of the major representatives of cubism. "Among Villon's greatest achievements as a printmaker was his creation of a purely graphic language for cubism – an accomplishment that no other printmaker, including his fellow cubists Pablo Picasso or Georges Braque, could claim." (Wikipedia)