Back of a Nude Woman
Gaston Lachaise
American Art
On View: American Art Galleries, 5th Floor, Surface Tension
This exuberant ink drawing conveys the powerful energy and voluptuous eroticism of the female nude—a favorite subject of the modernist sculptor Gaston Lachaise. Here he reduced the body to a flattened outline of sinuous curves, relying on the expressive quality of his line to animate the figure. Inspired by his wife and muse, Lachaise presented a new feminine ideal that endowed the classical Venus type with modernist forms and earthy sexuality.
MEDIUM
Black ink on cream, medium-weight, slightly textured wove paper
DATES
1929
DIMENSIONS
Sheet: 17 7/8 x 12 in. (45.4 x 30.5 cm) (show scale)
SIGNATURE
Inscribed in graphite, lower left: "To Carl Zigrosser / G. Lachaise / 1929"
COLLECTIONS
American Art
ACCESSION NUMBER
38.183
CREDIT LINE
Gift of Carl Zigrosser
PROVENANCE
1929, gift of the artist to Carl Zigrosser of New York, NY; July 27, 1938, gift of Carl Zigrosser to the Brooklyn Museum.
Provenance FAQ
EXHIBITIONS
MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is on view in American Art Galleries, 5th Floor, Surface Tension
CAPTION
Gaston Lachaise (American, born France, 1882–1935). Back of a Nude Woman, 1929. Black ink on cream, medium-weight, slightly textured wove paper, Sheet: 17 7/8 x 12 in. (45.4 x 30.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Carl Zigrosser, 38.183. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 38.183_PS2.jpg)
IMAGE
overall, 38.183_PS2.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2010
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RIGHTS STATEMENT
© Courtesy of the Lachaise Foundation
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