Getty Museum
Seated Female Nude
Creator
Adriaen van de VeldeDutch Artist · 1636–1672
All works by this person →Adriaen van de Velde first studied with his father Willem van de Velde the Elder, then trained with a landscapist in Haarlem. He produced his first known works, six etchings, in 1653 and had returned to Amsterdam by 1657. Van de Velde's varied body of paintings, drawings, and prints is comprised primarily of small landscapes in sparkling light softened by the haze of the nearby sea, with people an
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- about 1660–1670
- Medium
- Black chalk heightened with white chalk, on paper prepared with gray wash
- Culture
- Dutch
- Department
- Drawings
- Institution
- Getty Museum
Who is this woman? She sits nude, her left arm outstretched while her right reaches up to grasp it, with a small cloth draped modestly across her lap. Her high forehead, small eyes, long torso, and muscular legs lead scholars to guess that Adriaen van de Velde produced this drawing from a living model rather than an idealized figure. Choosing black chalk instead of the more traditional red, van de Velde softly shaded her body, adding delicate white heightening for the highlights. The cool colors of the black and white chalks and gray-toned paper complement the refined and delicate modeling of the figure. This subtlety contrasts with the broadly applied chalk strokes that set her off from the background. Van de Velde particularly emphasized the dark shadows beneath her legs and right arm, as well as the softer shadows around her back and upper thigh.
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