Study of a Female Nude, Seated

George Richmond

1870–79 (?) · Red and black chalk · Drawings and Prints

This sensitively drawn figure study likely dates to the later decades of Richmond’s career and demonstrates his ongoing commitment to life drawing, perhaps as a form of relief from his demanding career as a portraitist. Even when inundated with commissions to depict members of the Victorian elite, Richmond never forgot his youthful association with the Ancients, an idealistic brotherhood of artists led by Samuel Palmer, or his study trips to Italy in 1837 and 1840. Evident here is his lifelong admiration for the nudes of Michelangelo and Titian and his devotion to the study of the human body, sensuously and confidently described using red and black chalk.

Artist

George Richmond

Date

1870–79 (?)

Medium

Red and black chalk

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Purchase, Brooke Russell Astor Bequest, 2013