Louisiana - Nude Drawings and Watercolors

James Tissot was among the most successful and critically acclaimed artists of the Victorian era. Although the artist is celebrated for his elegant scenes of fashionable life in Paris and London, this work is a fascinating rarity within his oeuvre. In this monumental pastel, Tissot depicts a prehistoric woman draped in a tiger skin, presented with a striking pose and heroic air. His delicate portraiture, combined with his fascination with conveying texture, demonstrates why he was one of the most revered artists of his generation, and La femme préhistorique illustrates the remarkable technique for which he was renowned. This work was completed in preparation for a series of works exploring the Old Testament undertaken by Tissot from 1899-1902 that remained unfinished at the time of his death. A portion of this series focused on illustrations of Adam and Eve, and among these sketches were images of a nude Eve partially draped in animal furs. Towards the end of his life, following his conversion to Catholicism, biblical subjects became important to the artist. A few years before this work was completed, Tissot embarked upon a highly ambitious group of nearly 300 watercolors illustrating the New Testament, presenting the illustrated epic in its entirety at the Paris Salon of 1894. Both of these series were a critical artistic departure for the artist, stemming from a desire to create works separated from his typical images of modern society. This pastel imagines Eve as the prototype of womanhood in the guise of a prehistoric woman. Tissot rarely painted the nude, and his skill as a draftsman highlights the figure's natural beauty, contrasting it with the stark landscape surrounding her. Although a study, this monumental work is incredibly well-finished and highly engaging, with the statuesque model commanding the majority of the canvas. Her pose is strong and theatrical, and she addresses the viewer with a direct, confident gaze. The imagined historical subject of this drawing is grounded by Tissot’s exceptional attention to detail. A master of conjuring an array of textures, Tissot showcased this ability in this work by juxtaposing many types of fabrics and natural elements within one composition. The tiger skin with which the woman partially covers herself was a favorite studio prop of Tissot’s, appearing in many of his most influential works from the period, including several paintings of his partner and favorite model Kathleen Newton. It, in particular, showcases the artist’s understanding of texture, yet it also serves as an exotic element that elevates the sensuality of the scene when placed against the woman’s bare skin. Born in 1836 in the port town of Nantes, Tissot traveled to Paris at the age of 20 in order to join the studios of Hippolyte Flandrin and Louis Lamothe. During this period, he became close with James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Edgar Degas and Edouard Manet, and the impact of these friendships is reflected in his portraits of modern life. Having enjoyed considerable success in Paris during the 1860s, Tissot fought in the Siege of Paris, and after the fall of the Commune in 1871, he went to London, where he stayed for the next ten years. He was met with incredible success there, and he also met the love of his life, Kathleen Newton, a divorcée, with whom he lived from about 1876 until her death in 1882. Today he is regarded among the great masters of Belle Époque painting, and his works can be found in important collections worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the National Gallery of Art, the Musée d’Orsay, the Tate Gallery and many others. This pastel remained in Tissot's private collection until his death in 1902 and is referenced in the posthumous 1902-3 valuation of Tissot's home at 64 avenue du Bois...

"Girls" is a series of line-contour drawings by the artist Katie Chance as she studies sensuous female figures found in erotic imagery. Katie examines amateur pornographic photograph...

Georges de Feure 1868-1943 Dutch & French La Course à l'abîme (The Race to the Abyss) Signed "de Feure" (lower left) Gouache on paper Georges de Feure was a luminary figure in th...

I bought this as part of a portfolio of sketches by an obviously talented artist, but don't know the artist's name. These might be studio sketches as exercises, or preparation sketch...

A stunningly powerful drawing of a male nude, seated on a blanket on a knob of rock. I have provided the artist's name as it was given to me by the dealer, but I can find nothing at ...

At once sensual and elegant, this remarkable watercolor is the work of Scottish painter Sir William Russell Flint. One of the most celebrated watercolorists of the 20th century, Flin...

Stamped with initials "HM." (lower right) Pencil on paper It is with a purity of form and sensuous line that the great Henri Matisse composed this entrancing drawing. The composition was part of an important 1935 series inspired by his principal model, Lydia Delectorskaya. Recognizable here by her bob hairstyle and sensual, almond-shaped eyes, Lydia is not only reminiscent of Matisse's reclining odalisques of the 1920s, but also his 1935 Grand nue couchée (Baltimore Museum of Art), which represents the culmination of his explorations of the female nude. The same divan, with its simplified, grid-like pattern, that appears in Grand nue couchée is seen in the present drawing, clearly linking the two compositions to the same series of works. With his avant-garde exploration of the nude, Matisse firmly engages in the tradition of the idealized female nude in Western art. Sprawled upon her divan and gazing out towards the viewer, Matisse's Lydia brings to mind Édouard Manet’s iconic and uncompromising Olympia (Musée d’Orsay, Paris), Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’ La Grande Odalisque...

Stamped with initials "HM." (lower right) Pencil on paper The great Henri Matisse is renowned for his avant-garde approach to line and form during the mid-20th century. This excepti...

A pencil drawing Tom Leveritt (1976) was raised in Texas, sent to boarding school in the UK, got a first at Cambridge, an Army Scholarship into the 5th Ro...

A pencil drawing Tom Leveritt (1976) was raised in Texas, sent to boarding school in the UK, got a first at Cambridge, an Army Scholarship into the 5th Ro...

This drawing was among a group of drawings I bought from a dealer who did not have names of the artists. The quality was very high, so I didn't mind that I did not have artists names for them. This is a lovely classical nude sketch...

Martha Erlebacher has created a graceful image of a standing nude woman . This is a major drawing that is pencil signed by an important American figu...