In modern society, women appear nude in countless forms of art and media. However, the era of Renaissance nymph-like Botticelli and fleshy Rubens paintings is long gone.
Schiele’s female figures glare unabashedly towards the viewer, unlike the academic nude which was often veiled with a passive portrayal of mythology. These images evoke a sense of power and sexual desire while also challenging viewers’ assumptions about their agency.
History of the Nude
For centuries, images of nude women have stirred controversy and provoked debate about sexuality and gender roles. Today, we are familiar with the term “send nudes” when used to request naked pictures of women over social media, dating sites or in private text messages. However, art history reveals that depicting nude bodies has long been a part of the visual culture and was often subject to censorship or ridicule. From ancient Egyptian sculptures of female entertainers to the centerfolds of contemporary magazines, the nude body has influenced perceptions about human beauty and power.
In the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, with the rediscovery of classical antiquity, nudity became respectable again in the art world. Artists including Nicola Pisano and Giotto began to use live models for their nude paintings and drawings. By the 17th century, drawing from life had become routine workshop practice and artists such as Leonardo were serious students of anatomy.
The new popularity of nude portraits shifted the focus from the body’s physical attractiveness to its psychological and spiritual significance. Renaissance artists explored the meaning of aging, sick, pregnant, and ascetic nudes, imbuing them with an emotional power that was different from the feelings evoked by the idealized figures of muscular heroes or erotic goddesses.
By the 19th century, Modern painters such as Edouard Manet and Gustave Courbet re-opened the discussion about nudes and challenged the shackles of the male gaze that had defined the genre for centuries. The Modern female nude was strong, individualized, and provocative. She could be a prostitute or a sacred figure and she often stared back at the viewer with a confident and unflinching expression.
During the Baroque period, the continuing fascination with classical antiquity influenced artists to renew their approach to nude painting, though perhaps not quite as boldly as in the earlier Renaissance. Painters such as Peter Paul Rubens worked from life and favored more naturalistic, less idealized depictions of the body. The emphasis on a voluptuous form and radiant flesh gave rise to the term “Rubenianesque.”
In the 20th century, as feminism grew in strength, more female artists chose to use landscapes as their canvas, turning the earth into a site for self-discovery and a counterpoint to the voyeuristic male gaze of traditional nude art. Contemporary female nude artists such as Anne Brigman, Laura Aguilar and Sylvia Sleigh use the environment to challenge patriarchal power dynamics and promote feminist discourse about the importance of a woman’s relationship to nature.
Contemporary Nude Artists
Throughout art history, depicting the human body has been one of the most significant elements that artists have used to express their creativity and provoke controversy. The human form represents a fantastic source of inspiration as it is the embodiment of beauty, desire, reverie and the forbidden. Across different centuries and movements, painters have depicted the female nude to challenge artistic rules and push the boundaries of what is acceptable.
A large number of paintings have caused a scandal due to the depiction of nude women. Nevertheless, these works remain a powerful source of inspiration for contemporary artists. This is especially true for modern painters that explore the themes of sexuality, beauty and the body in general. During their career, the most successful artists have developed their own style and way to represent the nude subject. Some of these artists have become renowned for their controversial images, while others are less well-known.
For example, Suzanne Valadon (1865-1938) was a model for painters such as Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Paul Cézanne. Her work was a precursor of the nude as it portrayed real women from everyday life rather than mythological subjects. According to author Griselda Pollock, her works “spurned bourgeois mores and unhinged normative conceptions of womanhood.”
Jean-Honore Fragonard painted great landscapes, religious and mythological paintings, but was also known as the painter of frivolity and Rococo. In his painting Shirt Removed, from 1770, a servant of the goddess Venus takes off a woman’s blouse. The painting is both intimate and sensual as the subject reveals her chest. She has a confident look and a strong gaze that shows she is not embarrassed about her nakedness.
Gustave Courbet is another artist that was not afraid to scandalize with his paintings of the female nude. His realism challenged the rules of academic painting by revealing the nude without hiding anything. In his painting The Origin of the World, he depicted the female vagina without censorship.
Edouard Manet was also a pioneer in his depiction of the nude. In his two paintings Olympia and Dejeuner sur l’herbe, he portrayed prostitutes as opposed to the mythological figures like nymphs or goddesses that were commonly represented in academic painting at the time.
Hildegarde Handsaeme
Hildegarde Handsaeme is a contemporary Belgian artist who is celebrated for her mastery of minimalist lines and harmonious compositions. Her works transcend trends and invite introspection, offering a profound connection to the human experience. With a career spanning more than 200 pieces, she has established herself as a distinctive artist with international acclaim. She draws on classical appreciation for craftsmanship and modern approaches to theme and composition, creating artworks that are both visually stunning and emotionally resonant.
With a preference for the figure and nature of women, Hildegarde embraced her own path in the art world, choosing to self-teach herself in the plastic arts form. She now resides and paints in Terlanen, southeast of Brussels. The intimate approach she takes with this theme remains a source of inexhaustible inspiration.
Using the female body as her point of departure, she masterfully uses straight lines to build a mysterial haze of inner feelings on the canvas. This is done with a delicate sensitivity guided by an unfailing intuition.
Her unique style showcases her infinite quest to accomplish the ultimate harmony and her love for the woman figure. Her work is characterized by her ability to combine geometric and organic forms with a precise application of color, which reflects her intuitive development as an artist. Her paintings demonstrate a balance between simplicity and harmony, and each piece is imbued with a sense of beauty that transcends time. Hildegarde Handsaeme’s art speaks to a universal language of aesthetics and emotion, connecting with collectors and enthusiasts who seek timeless beauty.
Alice Neel
One of the most celebrated portrait painters of her time, Alice Neel (1899-1984) used her art to challenge many of the conventions surrounding the female body. While most art in her day depicted women as sirens, goddesses or sex symbols, Neel chose to paint intimate portraits of the real people who lived around her in New York.
As a woman who fought against sexism in her lifetime, Neel also challenged the taboos associated with ageing nude women. For her 1970’s paintings of Cindy and Daisy, she posed these elderly women naked in their homes as part of a larger series that included images of their grandchildren and partners. Neel’s aim was to broadcast to the public that such a way of life is normal and nothing to be ashamed of.
Her nude self-portraits from this period are regarded as brave, bold and boldly feminist. For example, in the painting titled ‘The Artist’s Room’ from 1975, Neel stripped herself of all her clothes and positioned herself as an older female figure who stands confidently before a canvas with a paintbrush in hand. This painting was an openly gay statement against the sexism and prejudices she faced on a daily basis in her work as an artist and in her personal life.
Throughout her career, Neel continued to paint the “basic facts of life”, as she referred to them. The exhibition At Home: Alice Neel in the Queer World, curated by Hilton Als, is a testament to the artist’s clear-eyed compassion towards humans of all walks of life.
The series of pregnant nudes Neel painted in the early 30s are especially important for their refusal to be reduced to stereotypical caricatures. According to art historian Ann Temkin, they allowed Neel to collapse the imaginary dichotomy that polarizes women into the chaste Madonna and the specter of the dangerous whore. Rather, these portraits of ordinary, everyday women are the kind that one sees all around but rarely in art.
Neel was a modern feminist who believed that gender was supplementary and not final. This was reinforced by her reading of Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex, which she cited in a interview in 1984.