Back of a Nude Woman

Gaston Lachaise

Brooklyn Museum photograph

Object Label

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.

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. © Courtesy of the Lachaise Foundation. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)

Gallery

Not on view

Collection

American Art

Title

Back of a Nude Woman

Date

1929

Medium

Black ink on cream, medium-weight, slightly textured wove paper

Classification

Drawing

Dimensions

Sheet: 17 7/8 x 12 in. (45.4 x 30.5 cm)

Signatures

Inscribed in graphite, lower left: "To Carl Zigrosser / G. Lachaise / 1929"

Credit Line

Gift of Carl Zigrosser

Accession Number

38.183

Rights

© Courtesy of the Lachaise Foundation

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Frequent Art Questions

  • This is my favorite sculpture of all time. Does the museum have more sculptures from this artist?

    That is a very popular sculpture among visitors! There are no other sculptures by Gaston Lachaise in the museum's collection, but there is a drawing, which currently is not on view.

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