Recumbent Figure 1945

Here we have Pierre Courtin’s etching, Recumbent Figure. Courtin, who was born in France in 1921, developed a visual language which reflects the post-war sentiment in Europe. The human figure is rendered here with a Cubist sensibility. The body, reduced to geometric forms, appears fragmented. This abstraction might be read as a metaphor for the existential experience of the individual in the face of a war-torn world, where traditional notions of identity and form have been disrupted. The reclining posture, traditionally associated with rest or leisure, is made uneasy by the sharp angles of the image. The woman’s upward gaze communicates a sense of introspection, set against the almost architectural shapes which surround her. The traditional representation of the reclining female nude is reimagined here, inviting us to consider the relationship between the body and the psychological space it inhabits.