Nu Allongée 

Henri Lebasque made this painting, Nu Allongée, with oil on canvas. It’s one of many nudes produced in France around the turn of the 20th century, a period when French art institutions were divided between conservative, academic styles and the more radical experimentation of artists like Cézanne, Matisse, and Picasso. Lebasque followed his own path, taking inspiration from Impressionism and Post-Impressionism to create a style that was modern, but not shocking. “Nu Allongée” exemplifies this balance. The reclining nude was a long-established trope, but Lebasque’s loose brushwork and flattened perspective placed the image within a contemporary aesthetic. Note, too, the model’s jewelry. It suggests a comfortable, bourgeois setting, far from the gritty urban scenes associated with some of his contemporaries. To fully understand paintings like this, we need to look at exhibition records, reviews in the press, and the biographies of both artist and patron. This kind of social history can open up new perspectives on even the most familiar images.