Seated Nude

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on April 28, 2014 at 8:27pm

Curator’s Comments:

 

At first glance, Seated Nude appears to be a straightforward academic painting, depicting a classical nude in profile with the quintessential accoutrements of a bowl of ripe fruit, easel and studio furniture.  But I’m drawn in by the lush color and interesting vantage point, which offers the viewer voyeuristic entry into the raised model platform.  The implied and converging diagonal lines in the piece offer heightened movement in the otherwise static scene, which is echoed by the slightly exaggerated local color and texture.  I also see the fleshy warm tones in the figure’s skin as being visually enveloped by the deeper crimson and purplish-violet drapery.  The understated shadows connect his overlapping limbs with these darker fabric shadows, but it remains a fairly closed value pattern.  But I’m curious that his raised arm with brush in hand could be a convenient implement for gesture, or suggestion of a reversal of model/artist.