Seated Female Nude (recto); Standing Male Nude (verso)

Pierre Paul Prud'hon

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This beautiful image of a seated female nude demonstrates Prud'hon's deep commitment to the study of the human figure. He has recorded a simple pose from a challenging point of view and modeled with utmost care the subtle forms of the ribs, knees, and thighs. Velvety shadow runs from the raised elbow to the figure's seat, and highlights soften the forms of the belly and breasts. The point of view adopted here makes it easy to imagine a semicircle of artists around the model, with Prud'hon perhaps placed at one end. This gathering would have occurred in a private setting, since the Académie Royale did not allow female nude models at the time.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art