NARRATOR:
A rosy glow illuminates the cheeks of this lovely young woman, as she turns to look at something outside the picture frame. Her flesh is wonderfully warm against the white of her rumpled sheets and the deep chocolate-brown of the background. Her skin seems almost translucent her long, slender fingers press down on the soft, receptive bedding.
In fact, this Reclining Nude was Jean-Antoine Watteau’s first known foray into erotic art. It reflected the new social and intellectual freedom of early 18th-century France, associated with the burgeoning spirit of the Enlightenment. The girl is as comfortable with her nakedness as a pagan goddess. Is she awaiting the ministrations of a maid? Or a lover?
Watteau is best known for his fêtes galantes, small canvases depicting elegant gatherings, with playful figures in tranquil parkland settings. In these pictures, he conveys amorous exchanges, suggesting the fleeting sensations of love and melancholy. Here, he renders his subject with characteristically broad brushstrokes, impressing us with the softness of her flesh rather than describing it in detail. Reclining Nude appeals as much to our senses as to our imagination, anticipating the airy painting style of 19th-century masters such as Manet and Renoir.
Reclining Nude
c. 1713-17
Jean-Antoine Watteau (French, 1684-1721)
Not on View
Jean-Antoine Watteau was received into the Royal Academy as a “painter of fêtes galantes,” a designation devised especially for him. His paintings are unique for their suggestion of mood, in particular the transitory sensations of love and melancholy. The subtle, erotic grace of this reclining nude is one in which he took obvious delight. The painting is titillating both for the ambiguity of its subject and for the transitions between passages of fine and bold brushwork, which add spontaneity to the intimate moment depicted. Atmospheric light and the union of color create space around the figure. They demonstrate Watteau’s affiliation with the sensual Rubénistes, named after Peter Paul Rubens, over the intellectual rigor of the Poussinistes, named after Nicolas Poussin, whose inspirations derived from classical art.
Details
- Artist Name: Jean-Antoine Watteau (French, 1684-1721)
- Title: Reclining Nude
- Date: c. 1713-17
- Medium: Oil on panel
- Dimensions: painted surface: 5-1/2 x 6-3/4 in. (14 x 17.1 cm); panel: 6 x 6-7/8 in. (15.2 x 17.5 cm)
- Credit Line: The Norton Simon Foundation
- Accession Number: F.1972.12.P
- Copyright: © The Norton Simon Foundation
Object Information
Baron Louis-Antoine Crozat, Baron de Thiers (1699-1770), by 1755, sold 4 January 1722 to;
Catherine II, Empress of Russia (1729–1796), gifted to;
Prince Grigori Orlov (1734–1783), by descent in the Orlov family to;
Prince Alexis Orloff (1867–1916), St. Petersburg.
[Richard Owen (1873–1946), Paris, sold 1939 to];
Samuel H. Kress, New York, recorded in 1941 inventory and disposed of by 1945, but likely a gift to;
Private Collection, Paris (possibly Mrs. Delora Kilvert, a close friend of Kress).
[E.V. Thaw and Co., Inc., New York, sold 16 May 1972 to];
The Norton Simon Foundation.
Catherine II, Empress of Russia (1729–1796), gifted to;
Prince Grigori Orlov (1734–1783), by descent in the Orlov family to;
Prince Alexis Orloff (1867–1916), St. Petersburg.
[Richard Owen (1873–1946), Paris, sold 1939 to];
Samuel H. Kress, New York, recorded in 1941 inventory and disposed of by 1945, but likely a gift to;
Private Collection, Paris (possibly Mrs. Delora Kilvert, a close friend of Kress).
[E.V. Thaw and Co., Inc., New York, sold 16 May 1972 to];
The Norton Simon Foundation.
La Surprise: Watteau in Los Angeles
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- Hagstrum, J., Sex and Sensibility: Ideal and Erotic Love from Milton to Mozart,no. 22 pp. 302-303
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