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Nude Bent Forward, Paris

A work made of gelatin silver print.

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  • A work made of gelatin silver print.

Date:

c. 1930

Artist:

Lee Miller
American, 1907–1977

About this artwork

Lee Miller began her career as a model in New York during the 1920s, eventually posing for celebrated photographers Edward Steichen and Arnold Genthe. In 1929 she moved to Paris, where she began to develop her own artistic ideas while assisting and then collaborating with Man Ray, a key member of the Surrealist movement. Miller mastered lighting and printing techniques; she also gained a reputation for portraits, fashion photography, and experimental compositions, such as this nude study, with Surrealist themes. In this picture the nude is presented as a modernist sculpture: armless, legless, and with an upended backside that suggests a profound reorientation of the human body. Her male contemporaries—Man Ray, but also Edward Weston—created similar works, but with more overtly erotic connotations. Miller, by contrast, deployed the camera’s potential to render anatomy disquieting while avoiding the offering of sexual titillation.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Photography and Media

Artist

Lee Miller

Title

Nude Bent Forward, Paris

Place

Poughkeepsie (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 1925–1935

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Inscriptions

Stamped on mount verso (Paris); signed, on mount, lower right, in graphite

Dimensions

Image: 20 × 17.5 cm (7 7/8 × 6 15/16 in.); Mount: 83.9 × 65.3 cm (33 × 25 3/4 in.)

Credit Line

Julien Levy Collection, Gift of Jean Levy and the Estate of Julien Levy

Reference Number

1988.157.54

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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