Cleveland Museum of Art

Study of a Reclining Nude

Isidore PilsLinkedCulture matchlcp-365c3908867e

Date: c. 1841
Medium: oil on fabric
Culture: France, 19th century
Department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture
Institution: Cleveland Museum of Art
Object ID: 118604

From the Cleveland Museum of Art record

The languorous, sensuous pose of this woman is strongly reminiscent of Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres's popular paintings of odalisques, female slaves, and concubines in Turkish harems. Much of this canvas has been left thinly painted or entirely blank, suggesting that it was a figural study rather than a finished work of art. The French Academy in the 1800s viewed the depiction of the nude as the ultimate measure of an artist's skill. Because models changed poses frequently, students had to work quickly and without embellishment. Here the artist completed only those areas needed to emphasize the contours of the model's body.

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Provenance & credit

As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.

Credit line: Gift of Leonard C. Hanna Jr.
Provenance: M. Zamaron, Paris. Bought from him by Mrs. Cornelius Sullivan, New York, before 1938. Bought by Leonard C. Hanna Jr. as gift for CMA on 8 February 1939.