Nude Model 

Giovanni Boldini made this oil sketch, titled Nude Model, probably in Paris at some point in the late 19th century. He was a portraitist, and this sketch shows us how images of the female body were shaped by the structures of the Parisian art world. Here, the woman’s form is a tool in the artist’s workshop, a means to an end. Boldini was part of a cultural world that was changing fast. On the one hand, the French academy still held sway. Its hierarchies of artistic subject matter valued historical scenes above all else. Yet, modern life had other plans. Courbet had already proved that the academy could be challenged. This meant that artists like Boldini were caught in the middle of the changing status of academic institutions in Europe, and this artwork acts as a record of a model being used to explore these new artistic paths. To understand the complex relationship of artist, artwork, and institution, the historian relies on multiple sources, including letters, biographies, exhibition reviews, and institutional records.