Nude woman reclining on a couch 1863

Thomas Eakins, an artist working in the late 19th and early 20th century, created this nude drawing. Eakins was deeply interested in realism and the human form, often challenging the social mores of his time. During this period, the representation of the nude body, particularly women, was heavily policed. Eakins sought to depict the human form with scientific accuracy, but in doing so, he often confronted controversies around nudity and representation. Here, we see a figure who perhaps doesn’t conform to conventional standards of beauty; this challenges the more idealized and eroticized nudes of academic tradition. By presenting a more naturalistic and less idealized vision of the female form, Eakins provokes questions about how we perceive and represent the body. He invites us to consider the power dynamics inherent in the act of looking, and how those dynamics shape our understanding of both art and the human experience.