922 - Standing female nude with long dark hair against a dark ground, nude painting, 20th century

Standing female nude with long dark hair against a dark ground, nude painting, 20th century Oil on canvas, signed lower left (not deciphered), 20th century, standing female nude in frontal view against a dark ground, the head turned to the left and the gaze lowered, long dark hair falling in strands over both shoulders to the waist, one arm hanging down, the other laid across the body, the hand on the thigh, condition commensurate with age, craquelure, paint losses, retouching, image 68x48 cm (HxW), framed, frame bumped, frame width 8 cm The nude, the depiction of the naked human body in drawing, nude painting, graphic art, sculpture and photography, has been part of training in artists' studios and at art academies since the Renaissance, where life drawing from the living model schooled anatomy and proportion. The first art academy to devote itself to the study of perspective and the proportions of the body was the Accademia del Disegno, founded in Florence in 1563 on the advice of Giorgio Vasari. From the 16th century onwards female models were increasingly available for the female nude, whereas in the Middle Ages male models had mostly served for this purpose. In the 19th century the depiction of the nude broke away from its ties to religious, mythological and historical subjects, as can be seen in Impressionists such as Renoir, Manet and Degas.