Portrait of Ida Rubenstein (1910)
Valentin Alexandrovich Serov (Russian, 1865/1911) - Portrait/Early Russian Impressionism
Location: The State Russian Museum, St Petersburg
”…Towards the end of his short life, Serov created several works in a completely new style, such as Portrait of Ida Rubinstein (1910). Ida Rubinstein was a dancer with Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. Serov depicts her naked, with a complete lack of idealisation. If anything, he exposes and accentuates the sharp, angular forms of her body. The picture is like a poster or a mural, terse in colour and outline. Serov spurns details and surrounding environment, concentrating all his attention on the eurhythmics that capture the true spirit of Ida Rubinstein…” http://www.virtualrm.spb.ru/en/english
The Deluge (1835-1845)
William Etty (1787/1849) - The first major British painter to specialise in the nude before the 20th century
Location: V&A Museum, London
”…Etty’s art divided public opinion during the first half of the nineteenth century more than that of any other British artist, with the possible exception of Turner.
During his 40-year career he produced a wide variety of landscapes and portraits, but is most famous for his repeated use of the female nude.
Many believed that the splendour of his richly coloured canvases was designed to disguise his underlying preoccupation with titillating forms of bodily display.
Etty was repeatedly encouraged to ‘turn from his wicked ways’ and make his art ‘fit for decent company’.
At the same time, one critic declared Etty to be ‘the greatest of all our history painters’. Another said the brilliancy of his colours were almost ‘too much for human eyes to dwell upon’.
He was described as the natural heir of the Old Masters; as ‘rivalling Rubens and the great Venetians on their own ground’.” http://www.yorkartgallery.org.uk
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Horst P. Horst ( German-American, 1906-1999) - Fashion Photography
”…Born in Germany in 1906, Horst went to Paris and apprenticed with Le Corbusier. A chance meeting with Baron George Hoyningen-Huene changed the course of his life, opening doors to a career in photography and a life spent among the artistic and social achievers of Paris and New York. Horst worked chiefly for Conde Nast Publications and over the course of sixty years, he photographed fashion and major personalities. A master of light and shadow, Horst’s love of classical architecture and sculpture figure prominently in much of his work. His dramatic ligting, elegance, and imaginative settings changed the look of portrait and fashion photography. Nudes, interiors, flowers, landscape, and still life all reflect his mastery of line and form. Horst has had major exhibitions at the Louvre, International Center for Photography, and soon in Berlin. Horst died in 1999.”
Iris Tree/Female Nude (1916)
Amedeo Clemente Modigliani ( Italien, 1884-1920)
Location: Courtauld Institute Galleries, London, UK
”…Modigliani’s series of grand nudes dates from between 1916 and 1919. When a group of them was first shown in 1917, in what was to be the artist’s only solo exhibition during his lifetime, they caused a minor scandal. One nude, visible through the gallery window, drew a crowd of onlookers who leered at, or were shocked by, the glorious expanse of flesh. The local police chief sent an officer to order that the nudes be removed and the exhibition was temporarily disrupted. Despite this inauspicious beginning, Modigliani’s nudes are among his most famous paintings – utterly different from his images of his last muse Jeanne Hébuterne or of the friends who modelled for his portraits. Modigliani’s Female Nude is perhaps the most exceptional of all his nudes. While Modigliani has depicted the woman’s body in a naturalistic manner, her elongated face, her simplified and harmonious features are reminiscent of the geometric and perfected forms of African statuary which the artist knew and admired. Painted in late 1916, it is unusual in that it is not part of a series as are his other nudes. Instead, it is interspersed among portraits of his friends and lovers. It is also one of only a small number of seated nudes. The majority of Modigliani’s nudes were portrayed in a reclining or sleeping position.”
http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/
Portrait of Marie-Louise O’Murphy* (1752)
François Boucher (French, 1703-1770) - Rococo
Location: Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Germany*/Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne, Germany
”…Lazy Afternoon: The name of the model who has made herself comfortable here on the sofa has been given to us by no lesser person than Casanova. She was Marie-Louise O’Murphy, born in 1737, who had begun work as a seamstress in Paris. The painter Boucher must have discovered her in 1751, because from then on she was employed as his model. Later she became the mistress of Louis XV.Lying on her stomach with her legs gracefully bent, the naked girl is shown on a couch covered with a sumptuously patterned yellow fabric. This choice piece of furniture must have stood in the boudoir of one of the aristocratic palaces in Paris, leaving the pressing question as to whether the girl really came from there. She is looking with interest over the backrest of the couch, out of the picture. And if the viewer wonders what it is she is looking at, the picture’s intention has been achieved, because it is meant to awaken, not satisfy, our curiosity. This maintains the tension.Boucher did two versions of this motif. The other one is in the keeping of the Alte Pinakothek in Munich. And one of the two, although it is uncertain which, was actually bought from the painter by the Marquise de Pompadour” http://www.wallraf.museum
(Source: burnpianoisland, via ikilledjackjohnson)
Crouching Woman (1827)
Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix (French, 1798-1863) - Romanticism
Location: Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois , US
”…Here is one of the many studies Delacroix produced before completing the work (The Death of Sardanapalus: http://www.artble.com/imgs/e/7/a/934950/the_death_of_sardanapalus.jpg ) in its entirety. This figure can be seen at the right of the king’s bed. It is unclear yet whether she has been slain or if she is attempting to ward off her murderer…” http://www.artble.com/artists/eugene_delacroix
