In previous publications on the topic of nude in art, we got acquainted with the history of the origin of this genre, learned about the ancient Greek statue recognized as a standard of female beauty, about the “indecent” pictures of medieval Japanese artists, called “shunga”, which they created to teach newlyweds - and at that time married and married quite early, how to behave properly on the first wedding night. We talked about the innovation of Raphael Santi, which could hardly be forgiven to any other artist, about the Renaissance nude, when many masterpieces were created, in particular Botticelli's wonderful painting “The Birth of Venus”.
Botticelli. Birth of Venus
We continued the publication with a story about the frivolous nudes of the Rococo era, about the artists Boucher and Fragonard, who created at that time, and some of their obscene even by modern standards paintings, created for noble and rich customers, not distinguished by strict manners.
We got acquainted with the iconic artwork of neoclassicist Jean Auguste Dominique Engra, who loved and could write nudes wonderfully, and provocative paintings by French impressionist Édouard Manet, which caused quite a scandal when Manet dared to present them to the audience.
We hope it will be even more interesting next.
In addition to impressionist Edouard Manet, even such an adherent andmaster of realism as Gustave Courbet scandalized on the subject of nudes. And we are not talking about his extremely frank artwork “The Origin of the World”, which was created for a private commission or even not about the painting “Sleeping”, which clearly hinted at unconventional relationships between girls, and, at first glance, quite decent canvas “Bathers”, depicting two peasant women in the style of realism.
Gustave Courbet. Bathers
Precisely because of his desire to show reality extremely naturalistic - as Courbet himself probably saw in reality, this painting was subjected to a real wave of criticism, even more fierce than the painting “Breakfast on the Grass” by Edouard Manet. Napoleon III, upon seeing it, struck the whip he held in his hand. Criticized even friends of Courbet, in particular, Eugène Delacroix, hinting at the “blatant vulgarity of forms. Well, and most of all critics outraged dirty feet peasant woman - “such vulgar naturalism has no place in painting, art should induce high feelings, and low plenty in ordinary life, and there is no reason to display it on the canvases.
And even the fact that peasant women in the XIX century did not particularly think about the cleanliness of their feet during bathing, and in ordinary life, Courbet did not change.
In Russia, nudes were not very actively painted, and Tretyakov never bought such paintings, because he was a moralist and a champion of family values, and many artists adjusted to his tastes. However, there were exceptions. For example, Ilya Repin wrote his painting “Sadko” for the Paris Salon in 1876, when he was in Paris.
Ilya Repin. Sadko
There it was received quite favorably, noted the accurate representation of the sea floor, and for good reason - Repin approached the painting very thoroughly, visited the marine aquarium in Berlin, the Crystal Palace in London and the oceanarium in Paris. That is why the seabed in the painting is authentic, but at the same time fabulous, bizarre and very beautiful.
And nude in this picture looked very harmonious - and how else should look like a fairy-tale sea princess? On the contrary, following the first, dressed in rich dresses underwater beauties, already resemble ordinary girls, which does not really connect with the image of sea creatures. Well, in the story Sadko chose as his wife a simple Russian girl Chernavka in traditional Russian dress, who stands a little further away, so no half-naked underwater beauties seduced him. There was a hidden meaning of this picture - underwater beauties embodied different artistic trends, but Repin always leaned towards critical realism, in which he succeeded. Even Impressionism criticized “for emptiness”, although he was impressed by the technique of painting.
However, even the highest-paid Russian artist Konstantin Makovsky, who specialized in portraits of wealthy customers and the display of colorful idealized Russian antiquity, wrote nudes.
Konstantin Makovsky. Russian beauty
True, he called his painting “Mermaids”, it was written on the motives of Slavic beliefs in 1879. Unnecessary caution - if he called it something else, depict the usual bathing girls, and even in a naturalistic manner as Courbet problems would be and the shaft of criticism did not escape. And so everyone is happy, all decency is observed. All is well, beautiful Marquise.
Konstantin Makovsky. Mermaids
However, later he wrote paintings in the style of impressionism, such as, for example, “Beauty, preparing for bathing”. The painting is painted with broad strokes, the background is almost not drawn, and it does not distract from the main thing - the beauty of the girl.
Konstantin Makovsky. Beauty preparing for bathing
It captures the moment here and now, so characteristic of the Impressionists, and the theme does not fit with the objectives of critical realism, it is pure art for the sake of beauty.
In the Art Nouveau era wrote nude representatives of the artistic association “World of Art”, drawing inspiration from the art of the past - Baroque and Rococo, which remodeled in accordance with their vision and style of painting. For example, Zinaida Serebryakova in 1911 wrote the painting “Bather” - an act bold enough, not so long ago women were not allowed to work with nudes at all. Many people think that the Bather is Zinaida Serebryakova herself, because the resemblance is obvious. But this is her sister Ekaterina, and Zinaida managed to show the sensuality and innocence of the girl in an amazing way.
Zinaida Serebryakova. Bather
The bather is absolutely natural, her gaze is calm and interested - she must have seen something interesting and amusing nearby, so she smiles easily and casually. This is pure admiration for beauty, art for the sake of aesthetics, without the desire to raise any serious questions, so characteristic of the Itinerant artists. And at Serebryakova delightfully turned out just such paintings, perhaps because her sitters were not shy at all, behaved as casually as possible, and Serebryakova had more than enough skill to capture this ease.
In the next article on this topic, we will talk about Rubensov beauties Kustodiev, nude Soviet artists and about modern trends and iconic painters in this genre. Stay tuned, it will be interesting.
And what do you think about the presented paintings - write in the comments.
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