The J. Paul Getty Museum

Study of a Female Nude

Object Details

Title:

Study of a Female Nude

Artist/Maker:

Pierre-Paul Prud'hon (French, 1758 - 1823)

Culture:

French

Date:

about 1800

Medium:

Black and white chalk with stumping on blue paper

Object Number:

99.GB.49

Dimensions:

60.3 × 31.8 cm (23 3/4 × 12 1/2 in.)

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Object Description

The nude model's head tilts downward with closed eyes, conveying a sensual aura of dreaminess. The naturalistic texture of her hair, gathered in a bun with delicate curls framing her face, contrasts with the marble-like texture of her skin. Her pose, seated with her arm extended upward and illuminated from the upper left, almost certainly imitates antique sculpture.

Pierre-Paul Prud'hon displayed his classical understanding of the female body in this intimate study, rendering the figure in a series of volumes--cylindrical legs and arms, conical breasts, triangular nose--with a treatment of the skin that yields a soft effect, achieved with short repetitive lines of hatching.

Provenance
Provenance
1823

Pierre-Paul Prud'hon, French, 1758 - 1823, by inheritance to Charles-Boulanger de Boisfremont, 1823.

1823-1838

Charles-Boulanger de Boisfremont (L.353), French, 1773 - 1838, by inheritance to his daughter Henri Power, née de Boisfremont.

1838-1864

Mme Henri Power, French, died 1864 [sold, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, April 16, 1864, probably lot 174 to Cesier.]

1864

Cesier
Source: Annotated auction catalogue, RKD and GRI: Hôtel Drouot, Paris. Catalogue des Dessins....par Prud'hon, April 15 - 16, 1864, p. 33, lot 174.

1908

Private Collection [sold, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, December 17, 1908, lot 23 to Marcel Caron]

1908

Marcel Caron, French (Paris, France)

1961

Jean Bloch (Paris, France) [sold, Palais Galliera, Paris, June 12, 1961, lot 8.]

1999

On consignment to Galerie Berès, sold to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1999.

Exhibitions
Exhibitions
The Body Beautiful: Artists Draw the Nude (1440-1880) (December 14, 1999 to February 27, 2000)
  • The J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center (Los Angeles), December 14, 1999 to February 27, 2000
To Create a Living Art: 19th Century Drawings (May 1 to July 15, 2001)
  • The J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center (Los Angeles), May 1 to July 15, 2001
A Revolutionary Age: Drawing in Europe, 1770-1820 (January 18 to May 1, 2005)
  • The J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center (Los Angeles), January 18 to May 1, 2005
Defining Modernity: European Drawings, 1800-1900 (June 5 to September 9, 2007)
  • The J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center (Los Angeles), June 5 to September 9, 2007
Drawing the Classical Figure (December 23, 2008 to March 8, 2009)
  • The J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center (Los Angeles), December 23, 2008 to March 8, 2009
Hatched! Creating Form with Line (March 11 to June 1, 2014)
  • The J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center (Los Angeles), March 11 to June 1, 2014
Bibliography
Bibliography

Hôtel Drouot, Paris. Catalogue des dessins [...] par Prud'hon [...] April 15, 1864, p. 33, lot 174.

Hôtel Drouot, Paris. Catalogue des Tableaux et Dessins anciens [...] December 17, 1908, p. 9, no. 23.

Guiffrey, Jean. L'Oeuvre de Pierre-Paul Prud'hon (Paris: Armand Colin, 1924), p. 438, no. 1145.

"Auktionen/Frankreich." Die Weltkunst 31, no. 13 (July 1, 1961), p. 16.

Palais Galliera, Paris. Collection Jean Bloch. Dessins et Tableaux anciens [...]. June 12, 1961, p. 2, lot 8, pl. IV.

Laveissière, Sylvain. Pierre-Paul Prud'hon, exh. cat. Jean Marie Clarke, trans. (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, with Harry N. Abrams, 1998), p. 260, fig. 185a.

Hendrix, Lee. "Shaping the Getty's Collection of Drawings." Master Drawings 38, no. 3 (Autumn 2000), pp. 355, 358, fig. 3.

The J. Paul Getty Museum Handbook of the Collections. 7th ed. (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2007), pp. 172-73, ill.

Breazeale, W. et al, The Language of the Nude: Four Centuries of Drawing the Human Body, exh. cat. (Sacramento: Crocker Art Museum with Lund Humphries, 2008), pp. 89-90, fig. 44.