Seated Nude

1884

Trained in the academic tradition, Bouguereau viewed the female nude as an ideal subject to display his skill. He rendered this model’s complex pose flawlessly, subtly manipulating light and shade to create a convincing illusion of three-dimensional form. The figure’s skin appears especially soft and smooth in contrast to the raw earth, jagged rock, and glassy water around her. Such craftsmanship attracted Sterling Clark, who continually praised the artist’s technique in his diaries.

Medium	oil on canvas
Dimensions	45 7/8 x 35 3/8 in. (116.5 x 89.8 cm) Frame: 55 7/16 x 45 9/16 in. (140.8 x 115.7 cm)
Object Number	1955.659
Acquisition	Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955
Status	On View

Image Caption

William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Seated Nude, 1884, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, 1955.659

Select Bibliography

Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Exhibit Five, Supplement: South Gallery. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1959. Brooke, David S. Bouguereau's "Nymphs & Satyr," The Biography of a Painting. Exhibition brochure. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1985. Théberge, Pierre. Salvador Dali. Exhibition catalogue. Montreal: Museum of Fine Arts, 1990. Leighton, John, and Richard Thomson. Seurat and The Bathers. Exhibition catalogue. London: The National Gallery; New Haven: distributed by Yale University Press: 1997. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1970. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1972. Harding, James. Artistes Pompiers: French Academic Art in the 19th Century. London: Academy Editions, 1979. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1984. Kern, Steven, ed. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1992. Zeiger, Gene. Leaving Egypt. Fredonia, NY: White Pine Press, 1995. Wissman, Fronia E. Bouguereau. San Francisco: Pomegranate Publications, 1996. Cahill, Timothy. Art in Nature: The Clark Art Institute Today and Tomorrow. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francince Clark Art Institute, 2003. DVD. Nehamas, Alexander. Only a Promise of Happiness: The Place of Beauty in a World of Art. Princeton: Princeton Univeristy Press, 2007. Lees, Sarah, ed. Nineteenth-Century European Paintings at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute; New Haven and London: distributed by Yale University Press, 2012. Vachon, Marius. W. Bouguereau. Paris: A. Lahure, 1900. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. French Paintings of the Nineteenth Century. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1963. Cahill, Timothy. Art in Nature: The Clark Art Inside and Out. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francince Clark Art Institute, 2005 Bartoli, Damian. William Bouguereau. 2 volumes. Woodbridge, England: The Antique Collectors' Club in association with The Art Renewal Center, 2010. Ganz, James A. and Richard R. Brettell. Great French Paintings from the Clark: Barbizon through Impressionism. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Skira Rizzoli Publications; Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2011.

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EUROPEAN PAINTINGS CATALOGUE ENTRY

Provenance

The artist, sold to Boussod, Valadon, 15 Nov. 1884; [Boussod, Valadon, Paris, sold to Olry, 27 May 1885]; probably Jacques Olry, Paris, from 1885;¹ [Galerie Lorenceau, Paris, sold to Clark, 29 May 1938]; Robert Sterling Clark (1938–55); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955. 1. See Goupil Stock Books, book 11, p. 117, no. 17227.