Nude 1909

Raoul Dufy made this painting, "Nude," with oil on canvas, though its exact date is unknown. Dufy was a French painter, and this work evokes the visual language of early modernism in France, with his rendering of the body owing a debt to Paul Cézanne's geometric approach to form. However, it is important to remember the gendered history of modern art, in which the male gaze often objectified women's bodies. The history of painting, and particularly the nude, is deeply rooted in the power dynamics of its time. Considering the institutional history of art, this nude—now in a private collection—reflects changing attitudes towards representations of the body, particularly in the academy, where the nude was traditionally the basis of artistic training. To delve deeper into the meaning and context of this artwork, exploring social histories of the period, art criticism, and the artist's biography would prove invaluable.