Reclining Female Nude 1923

Here we have 'Reclining Female Nude', a sculpture by Svend Rathsack, now residing at the SMK in Copenhagen. It’s a work made of plaster, so right away, there's a sense of weight and mass, but also fragility. I’m thinking about Rathsack and the way he's building up this figure, touch by touch, smoothing out the curves, carving into the material to define the contours of her body. I mean, what was he thinking as he worked? Was he trying to capture an ideal of beauty, or something more visceral, more human? Look at the way she reclines, almost languidly, but there's a tension in her posture, too. And her face! She's looking off to the side, mouth open, as if she just heard something. Is she surprised? Amused? Worried? The way she’s been immortalised in plaster feels somehow very old and very new. It makes me consider all of art history.