Staande naakte man 1746 - 1793

Louis-Marin Bonnet made this chalk-manner print of a standing nude man in 1770. In eighteenth-century France, the institutions of art, such as the Royal Academy, had a powerful influence on artistic style and subject matter. Nude studies such as this one were fundamental to the academic system, providing artists with the skills to represent the human form according to classical ideals of beauty. But this image also seems to reference another social institution, namely theatre. The figure strikes a somewhat mournful pose, leaning on what seems to be a draped prop. Is this an actor, perhaps? Or does this work hint at the theatricality of academic art itself, where the artist is expected to perform their mastery of established conventions? By studying the prints and drawings of the time, as well as archival records of the Academy, we can better understand the complex relationship between art, social structures, and artistic institutions in eighteenth-century France.