Valadon, Suzanne (1865-1938) Nu couché (Reclining Nude) 1928 Oil on cardboard, 60 x 80.48 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Suzanne Valadon posed as a model for the artists Renoir, Degas, and Toulouse-Lautrec before she began painting herself in 1893.…
Gauguin, Paul (1848-1903) Femme tahitienne (Tahitian Woman) c.1894 Charcoal and pastel on paper, mounted on millboard, 54.9 x 49.5 cm Brooklyn Museum, New York In 1890 Paul Gauguin wrote of his attraction to the French colony of Tahiti in a manner…
Renoir, Pierre-Auguste (1841-1919) Baigneuse blonde (Blonde Bather) 1881 Oil on canvas, 81.6 x 65.4 cm Clark Art Institute, Williamstown Compare: Renoir, Auguste (1841-1919) La Baigneuse blonde c.1880–1881 Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas Renoir, Auguste (1841-1919) La Baigneuse blonde 1882 Pinacoteca…
Caravaggio (1571-1610) Bacco (Bacchus) c.1598 Oil on canvas, 95 x 85 cm Galleria degli Uffizi, Firenze This painting is part of the author’s early series of half-length portraits painted ‘in chiaro’, which includes works such as the ‘Fruttaiolo’ (Boy with a…
Bernini, Gian Lorenzo (1598-1680) Corpus (The Crucified Christ) c.1650 Bronze, 174 cm Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
Guercino (1591-1666) Il ritorno del figliol prodigo (The Return of the Prodigal Son) 1654–1655 Oil on canvas, 155.6 x 146.1 cm Timken Museum of Art, San Diego The parable depicted by Il Guercino (a nickname meaning “squint-eyed”) is the one most…
Modigliani, Amedeo (1884-1920) Nu féminin assis (Seated Female Nude) c.1916 Oil on canvas, 92.4 x 59.8 cm Courtauld Institute of Art, London
Courbet, Gustave (1819-1877) La Femme aux bas blancs (Woman with White Stockings) 1864 Oil on canvas, 65 x 81 cm Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia Traditionally, European painters made the nude subject decorous by presenting it as part of an edifying mythological narrative.…
Rousseau, Henri (1844-1910) Mauvaise surprise (Unpleasant Surprise) 1899–1901 Oil on canvas, 194.5 x 129.5 cm Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia The large-scale jungle scenes of Henri Rousseau are rife with violent struggles between wild animals such as lions, tigers, and horses. Here, a…
Matisse, Henri (1869-1954) Nu couché (Reclining Nude) 1923–1924 Oil on canvas, 60 x 92 cm Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia Matisse painted this work in Nice, a city in the South of France that he visited frequently in the 1920s. The canvas is…