William Mulready – Female nude, seated, three-quarter view from the front, 1859

by Atelier Liesjes

A seated female figure in three-quarter profile — an academic study of the female nude that demonstrates Mulready’s masterful knowledge of anatomy. The pose, the lighting and the rendering of the skin and body form are precise and refined, the result of decades of academic training. Mulready often used professional models for his studies and executed them with great attention to detail. The ‘ 'driekwart aanzicht' ’ (front view) is a classical academic composition that shows the body at its best: the curves of the shoulder, chest and thigh are visible without the figure being seen entirely from the front. In the nineteenth century, this type of nude study served both an educational and an aesthetic purpose: learning to draw the human figure was the foundation of academic training. William Mulready (1786–1863) was an Irish-English painter, born in County Clare. He studied at the Royal Academy of Arts and became known for his genre paintings in bright colours, landscapes and nude studies. Mulready was a technical perfectionist who developed a particularly refined painting technique, using a white ground to achieve his luminous colour effects. He was one of the first artists to paint on ivory-white panel in order to achieve brightness. His academic nude studies are of a high technical standard and demonstrate his mastery in the depiction of the human figure.