Minneapolis Institute of Art

Nude Woman (Femme dénudée)

Louis Legrand

Date

c. 1900

Medium

Pastel on cardboard

Department

European Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Louis Legrand was apt to challenge accepted sexual mores, which made his art controversial. He looked to Parisian brothels for his subjects, whom he often depicted during intimate moments. Many collectors knew of Legrand’s sensual prints, but pastels such as this one were known mostly to private connoisseurs. The artist took an original approach to pastel, evident here in his scrawls, swirls, smudges, and mixing of colors. He used lurid pinks and blues with a slash of yellow for his model, captured resting or perhaps daydreaming. Despite having been jailed briefly for the obscenity of some of his work, Legrand was made a knight of the French Legion of Honor in 1906. His success proved fleeting, however, and he died, largely forgotten, in 1951. France, Europe

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