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Study of a Male Nude

A work made of graphite on pink wove paper with pink and blue fibers, altered to buff.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of graphite on pink wove paper with pink and blue fibers, altered to buff.

Date:

1858

Artist:

Edgar Degas
French, 1834–1917

About this artwork

French artists in Rome often gathered at the Villa Medici for after-dinner drawing sessions. On one such occasion, in the company of Gustave Moreau, the young Degas made this study. The two artists depicted the same nude, but from different vantage points. Degas dated his study “1857 ”speculatively, many years later, but Moreau recorded “1858” at the time. The model’s dramatic pose—raised arm, eyes turned heavenward—was in keeping with the large-scale paintings favored by the French state in the 1850s. These tended to show heroic subject matter; the figure here could have been a potential prototype for a multifigure composition.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Prints and Drawings

Artist

Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas

Title

Study of a Male Nude

Place

France (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 1858

Medium

Graphite on pink wove paper with pink and blue fibers, altered to buff

Inscriptions

Inscribed recto, lower left, in graphite: "Rome. 1857"; verso, center, in graphite: "no. 3 / Ph2259 / 4"

Dimensions

20.5 × 28.1 cm (8 1/8 × 11 1/8 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Dorothy Braude Edinburg to the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection

Reference Number

2013.924

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/185909/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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