A selection of nude paintings (1850-1950)

A SELECTION OF NUDE PAINTINGS (1850-1950)

Nude paintings were much popular during the 19th century notably in France where painters such as François Boucher and Jean-Honoré Fragonard produced some spectacular erotic works showing naked women in lustful postures only to be surpassed by Francisco Goya whose «Maja desnuda» appeared to be quite pornographic in the eyes of his contemporaries.

Nude figures remained however in demand until the fall of Emperor Napoleon 1st before the Victorian era imposed a kind of embargo on woman nakedness. Strict attitudes then prevented painters from say taking the clothes off their models.

Only a few painters ignored that sort of embargo which lasted until at least 1860 and it

was in France again where pornographic pictures had been circulating clandestinely in the 1830’s that the trend for nude paintings resumed, notably with Corot, Puvis de Chavannes, Delacroix and some other masters who however adopted an academic approach to treat

such subject.

Then, the success of orientalist scenes induced several painters, notably Jean-Léon

Gérôme, to represent slave markets with lovely women being bought by Arab merchants or harems and their sexy naked female occupants resting or taking a bath.

Edouard Manet with his «Olympia» painted in the 1860’s was among the very first heirs of Goya who did not bother much with the bourgeois censorship regarding postures. Even so Manet, Renoir, Degas and those who painted naked figures were still miles away from Gustave Courbet who certainly produced the most shocking work of the 19th century called «The creation of the world» and simply showing a woman’s womb and her vagina covered by pubic hair between two appealing thighs.

This painting, made for a Turkish pacha, was never shown in public while its various owners used to hide it behind another work and it was not before the 1990’s that it came out of secrecy. It is now exhibited in the Orsay Museum in Paris.

Today, 19th and early 20th century nude paintings are quite in demand, notably those works with women in lewd postures which made people blush 100 years ago and simply smile nowadays.

Good nude paintings are not so easy to find. Usually there are no more than a handful in

each of the half a dozen sales of 19th century paintings held every year by Christie’s and Sotheby’s in London and New York. As a result prices are always quite strong.

Victoriano Codina y Langlin (Spanish) (1844-1911) (Between $ 15,000 and 30,000) “A female nude by a pool “

Josef Kalous (Czechoslovakian) (1887-1974) (Between $ 2,500 and 10,000) “Liszi”

Raphaël Kirchner (Austrian) (1876-1917) (Between $ 2,000 and 3,000) “Ecstasy”

Maria Szantho (Hungarian) (1898-1984)
(Between $ 2,500 and 5,000)
“Striking a pose”

Fernand Khnopff
(Belgian) (1858-1921)
(Between $ 70,000 and 1,000 000)
“Reine nue” (Naked Queen)
Max Levis (German) (1863- ?)
(Between $ 10,000 and 25,000)
“Sleeping beauty”

Noël Quintavalle called Noëlqui (Italian) (1893- ?)
(Between $ 3,000 and 12,500)
“Reclining nude”

Jakub Obrovsky (Czechoslovakian) (1882-1949)
(Between $ 5,000 and 20,000)
“In the closet”

Anders Zorn (Swedish) (1860-1920)
(Between $ 60,000 and 2 million)
“Alvan”

Théodore Chassériau (French) (1819-1856)
(Between $ 250,000 and 1,3 million)
“Venus marine”

Paul Fisher (Danish) (1860-1934)
(Between $ 20,000 and 75,000)
“Bathing beauties on the beach”
Joaquin Sunyer y Myro (Spanish) (1874-1956)
(Between $ 17,000 and 37,000)
“A sleeping nude”

Paul Merwart (Polish) (1855-1902)
(Between $ 5,000 and 15,000)
“Bacchante aux raisins”

Miklos Mihalovits (Hungarian) (1888-1960)
(Between $ 3,000 and 6,000)
“The artist’s model ”

Eduard Cucuel (American) (1875-1954)
(Between $ 35,000 and 100,000)
“Nudes by a lake”
Otto Scholderer (German) (1834-1902)
(Between $ 5,000 and 18,000)
“The nymph”

Pierre Olivier Joseph Coomans (Belgian) (1816-1889)
(Between $ 10,000 and 40,000)
“The bathers”

Jules Joseph Augustin Laurens (French) (1825-1901)
(Between $ 2,000 and 6,000)
“La baigneuse”

Zsigismond Koloszvary (Hungarian) (1899-1983)
(Between $ 1,800 and 4,000)
“A reclining female nude”
Rezso Zsombolya-Burghardt (Hungarian) (20th century)
(Between $ 2,000 and 4,000)
“A reclining female nude”

Théodore Fantin-Latour (French)
(Between $ 35,000 and 2,5 million)
“Saint Anthony’s temptation”

Ferencz Baron de Hatvany (Hungarian) (1891- ?)
(Between $ 4,000 and 8,000)
“A reclining nude”

Rene Mege du Malmont (French) (1859-1911)
(Between 5,000 and 20,000)
“La cigale”
Gustav Zorn (German) (1845-1893)
(Between $ 15,000 and 25,000)
“Reclining nude”

Charles Edouard Boutibonne (Austrian) (1816-1897)
(Between $ 15,000 and 30,000)
“Mermaids frolicking in the sea”

Raphaël Kirchner (Austrian) (1876-1917) “Between $ 2,000 and 3,000) “Temptation”

Charles Napier Kennedy (British) (1852-1898) (Between $ 20,000 and 50,000) “Perseus and Andromeda”

Tancrède Synave (French) (Born in 1860) (Between $ 10,000 and 25,000) “The white fan”

Ethel Mortlock (British) (19th Century) (Between $ 5,000 and 20,000) “Lady Godiva”

Arturo Noci (Italian)
(1875-1953)
(Between $ 15,000 and 25,000)
“The bath”

Frederic Lord Leighton
(English) (1830-1896)
(Between $ 25,000 and 80,000)
“The bath of Psyche”

Albert Joseph Moore (British)
(1841-1883)
(Between 50,000 and 100,000)

“A bathing place”
Guillaume Seignac (French)
(1870-1924)
(Between $ 20,000 and 85,000)
“Nymphe à la pièce d’eau”
Anthony Troncet (French)
(1848-1915)
(Between $ 5,000 and 20,000)
“Au bord du lac”
Guillaume Seignac (French)
(1870-1924)
(Between $ 5,000 and 20,000)
“La vague”

Charles Joseph Frédéric Soulacroix
(French) (1825-1879)
(Between $ 20,000 and 75,000)
“Spring”
Adolph Alexandre Lesler ‘French) (1839-1890)
(Between $ 15,000 and 40,000)
“Bacchante enivrée”
Anthony Regnier (French) (1835-1909)
(Between $ 4,000 and 20,000)
“L’Almée”

Paul Fischer (Danish) (1860-1934)
(Between 10,000 and 35,000)
“The three bathers”

William Adolphe Bouguereau (French) (1825-1905) (Between $ 100,000 and 600,000) “L’étoile perdue”

Louis Priou (French) (Born in 1845) (Between $ 15,000 and 40,000) “Jeune femme aux fleurs”

Charles Edouard de Beaumont (French) (1812-1888) (Between 15,000 and 30,000) “The temptation of St. AnthonySource: artcult.fr

Léopold Robert (French) (1794-1835) (Between $ 15,000 and 50,000) “A pastoral Idyll”

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