Nu féminin allongé sur un canapé Récamier

Gustave Le Gray

ca. 1856 · Albumen silver print from glass negative · Photographs

The central figure in French photography of the 1850s, Le Gray was a master of many genres including landscape and seascape, architectural photography, and portraiture. Only four nude studies by Le Gray are known, however, each in a single example. In this striking image, the photographer departed from the usual academic treatment of the nude, such as he might have learned from his years in the painting studio of Paul Delaroche, in favor of a more psychologically charged spirit. The daybed’s velvet upholstery, the tassels on the pillow, and the heavy curtain fabric have a reassuring and familiar presence, but the serpentine locks of hair evoke Medusa and hint at strangulation, while the legs and feet cross and tense in the manner of a crucifixion. Withdrawn in sleep—or is it death?—the beautiful young woman reminds one of a drowning victim, an Ophelia freshly recovered from the Seine, a theme favored by the painters and poets of Paris.

Artist

Gustave Le Gray

Date

ca. 1856

Medium

Albumen silver print from glass negative

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Gilman Collection, Purchase, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 2005