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Essay Archive - Gustave Courbet's Reclining Nude
Gustave Courbet's Reclining Nude
In the Philadelphia Museum of Art are five paintings by Gustave Courbet;
of all of these I found Reclining Nude (1868, Oil on canvas, The Louis &
Stern Collection, 63-81-20) the most interesting. It depicts a nude woman
lying on the beach beneath a billowing canopy. A dark, but tranquil sea is
in the background. The sky is dark as if the final rays of the sun were
disappearing over the horizon. There are a few clouds in the sky, they are
dark but not threatening. The picture is very dark in general and there is
no obvious light sour....
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