925 - Nude painter, Two female nude studies on a painting board painted on both sides, seated nudes

Nude painter, Two female nude studies on a painting board painted on both sides, seated nudes Oil on painting board, unsigned. The support painted on both sides, one nude study on the front and one on the back; the framing leaves both sides visible. One study shows a female nude seen from behind, seated on a light cloth with the upper body turned to the right, against an ochre-brown ground with pink accents. The second study shows a seated female figure bent far forward, her arms brought down to her drawn-up legs, against a grey-green ground. Both studies laid in broadly and with impasto in a few colour values, the contours set in dark brown and black. Age-appropriate condition, support dented in the upper area, retouching. Image approx. 68 x 46 cm (HxW), framed, frame bumped, frame width 8 cm. The academic nude study remained a fixed part of art training well into the 20th century: after drawing from antique casts came painting from the living model, in which pose, foreshortening and the modelling of flesh tones in light were practised. Painting board was the usual support because it was inexpensive, portable and robust; studies of this kind usually remained in the painter's studio and only reached the market through the estate.