Standing Female Nude

Arthur B. Davies's "Standing Female Nude" (1882/93) is a drawing in black crayon and white chalk on brown laid paper, dating from the early part of Davies's career. The brown paper provides a warm mid-tone against which the black crayon builds the darker shadows and the white chalk picks out the highlights, a technique reminiscent of the Old Master tradition of drawing on tinted paper. The model stands in a classical contrapposto pose, her weight on one leg, the body rendered with a sensitivity to volume and contour that reveals Davies's academic training. This early drawing shows Davies working within the conventions of academic figure study before he developed the more mystical, symbolist style for which he is best known. The careful modeling and attention to anatomical structure reflect the discipline that underlay even his most visionary later works. Davies studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Students League, and this drawing belongs to the period of his formation as an artist.

Davies's figure drawings demonstrate the academic foundation upon which his later symbolist experiments were built, showing that his mystical visions were grounded in solid draftsmanship.

This early nude study reveals the academic discipline beneath Davies's later visionary style, the careful modeling in black and white chalk showing an artist who had thoroughly mastered the traditional craft of drawing.