Ein gebeugter und ein gestreckter Arm 

Victor Müller made this pencil sketch of a bent and straight arm sometime in the mid-19th century. It’s currently held at the Städel Museum in Frankfurt. The very existence of this sketch tells us a lot about the art institutions of the time. It would have been made as part of the artist’s training. The art academy was where artists learned to draw the human body. Students copied the works of the Old Masters as well as drawing from life. In both cases, drawing from the male nude was considered essential to the production of high art. This was thought to instill the aesthetic principles that underpinned all great art. The nude was thus presented as a universal form, when in fact, the art academy enforced a narrow range of approved subjects and styles. Sketchbooks, academic journals, and exhibition catalogues are invaluable sources for tracing the history of these institutions and the assumptions they promoted.