Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice book in great condition. Pages in excellent condition. Images are beautiful bright and vivid. No notes or highlighting. See images. Fantastic book.

About the book >.>.> The model who had once posed anonymously for the life class took on personality and a new eroticism during the nineteenth century. The female as well as the male model became the artist’s subject and more than that his inspiration muse ideal and lover. From the academy podium the model moved not only to centre stage in the artist’s canvas but also into his studio and frequently his life. For many particularly William Etty at the Royal Academy in the early nineteenth century the life class and the study of the living model were crucial to the learning and practice of their art. But the study of the ‘undraped model was a matter of controversy in Britain throughout the nineteenth century a controversy only exacerbated by the issue of ‘art photography’ and the mounting demands of women artists for admission to the life class. Only at the end of the century did the life class become firmly established – particularly at the new Slade School of Art training ground for Britain’s leading artists of the early twentieth century including Stanley Spencer. This book shows fascinating examples of studies of the male and female nude by both well known and lesser artists. It recreates the atmosphere of the life class and studio examining for example the occurrence of covert homosexuality and the underpaid reality of a once derided profession; only a few models made it to the Caf? Royal and the glamour of a bohemian lifestyle among the rich and fashionable. (MP)