Human body
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Etudes de nus I
Pierre Sojo
Fine Art Drawings - 65 x 50 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 25.6 x 19.7 x 0.1 inch
£400
La descente de l'esprit ou essai clinique d'un transhumanisme à visage humain
Bernard Fièvre
Painting - 100 x 50 x 1 cm Painting - 39.4 x 19.7 x 0.4 inch
£2,223
Nude Woman
André Meaux Saint-Marc
Fine Art Drawings - 50.5 x 32.5 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 19.9 x 12.8 x 0 inch
£267
Meli Melo 2
Dominique Payen
Fine Art Drawings - 45 x 30 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 17.7 x 11.8 x 0.4 inch
£311
Corps ovale sur fond rouge
Changzheng Zhu
Painting - 70 x 50 x 2 cm Painting - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0.8 inch
£712
Plat en Porcelaine de Limoges
Romane Louise
Design - 32 x 32 x 2 cm Design - 12.6 x 12.6 x 0.8 inch
£267
Quando le terre stavano finendo
Alessandra Bisi
Fine Art Drawings - 127 x 94 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 50 x 37 x 0.4 inch
£2,268
Lovers
Emilio Greco
Fine Art Drawings - 100 x 70 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 39.4 x 27.6 x 0 inch
£5,781
The little self made man
Víctor Hugo Yáñez Piña
Sculpture - 25 x 13 x 11 cm Sculpture - 9.8 x 5.1 x 4.3 inch
£4,180
She is Haunted by a Spirit (Manu Tupapau)
Paul Gauguin
Print - 26 x 42.5 x 0.1 cm Print - 10.2 x 16.7 x 0 inch
£8,449
Study for reclining
Jonathan Chapline
Painting - 17.8 x 12.4 x 1.87 cm Painting - 7 x 4.9 x 0.7 inch
£13,815
Courbes entre-mêlées
Laurent Castellani
Photography - 100 x 70 x 0.01 cm Photography - 39.4 x 27.6 x 0 inch
£9,339
Buste de femme bleu 2021 2053
Aldema Design & Art
Sculpture - 110 x 70 x 40 cm Sculpture - 43.3 x 27.6 x 15.7 inch
£3,113
Nu 28
Thomas Witte
Fine Art Drawings - 64 x 50 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 25.2 x 19.7 x 0.1 inch
£712
Body Painting par Keith Haring
Patrick Sarfati
Photography - 40 x 30 cm Photography - 15.7 x 11.8 inch
£712
Mulheres são Flores, Homens são Borboletas
Fernando de la Rocque
Print - 40 x 40 cm Print - 15.7 x 15.7 inch
£1,423
Ocean
Witold Pyzik
Fine Art Drawings - 50 x 70 x 0.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 19.7 x 27.6 x 0.2 inch
£1,601
Tender words
Katarzyna Wazyk
Fine Art Drawings - 70 x 100 cm Fine Art Drawings - 27.6 x 39.4 inch
£1,690
Energy (from the cycle Flow)
Joanna Sokolowska
Painting - 100 x 80 cm Painting - 39.4 x 31.5 inch
£1,690
La lune n'a rien à craindre des loups #3
VAM / Jean-Pierre Gilson
Photography - 60 x 80 x 0.1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 31.5 x 0 inch
£1,512
Golfers - black and white photography
Allan Teger
Photography - 60 x 90 cm Photography - 23.6 x 35.4 inch
£1,334
Les enveloppes - image 5/13
Sarah Salazar
Photography - 140 x 100 x 1 cm Photography - 55.1 x 39.4 x 0.4 inch
£1,334
Streetart statue lion
Maudin
Sculpture - 59 x 32 x 25 cm Sculpture - 23.2 x 12.6 x 9.8 inch
£1,423 £1,281
Immersió 204
Oriol Texidor
Fine Art Drawings - 42 x 30 x 4 cm Fine Art Drawings - 16.5 x 11.8 x 1.6 inch
Sold
#40 - Free As A Veil
Eric Lespinasse
Photography - 72 x 128 x 2 cm Photography - 28.3 x 50.4 x 0.8 inch
£853
Statue of a woman (1)
Fabrizio Savi
Sculpture - 45 x 14 x 10 cm Sculpture - 17.7 x 5.5 x 3.9 inch
£1,156
Nu sur fond rouge
Franck Sadock
Sculpture - 67 x 51 x 6 cm Sculpture - 26.4 x 20.1 x 2.4 inch
£2,046
Nu VI
Mirco Marcacci
Fine Art Drawings - 40 x 30 x 0.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 15.7 x 11.8 x 0.2 inch
£792
Sans titre
Michel Lablais
Fine Art Drawings - 42 x 23.5 x 4 cm Fine Art Drawings - 16.5 x 9.3 x 1.6 inch
£623
Looking for the past
Stefan Hadzi Nikolov
Painting - 50 x 40 x 2 cm Painting - 19.7 x 15.7 x 0.8 inch
£1,290
Femme nue allongée
Georgine Dupont
Painting - 60 x 92 x 2 cm Painting - 23.6 x 36.2 x 0.8 inch
£1,340
Au Feu d'une Rencontre Mystique
Françoise Benomar
Photography - 60 x 40 cm Photography - 23.6 x 15.7 inch
£1,156
Jeune victoire série corps de femme
Chantal Molinié Jonquet
Sculpture - 36 x 16 x 26 cm Sculpture - 14.2 x 6.3 x 10.2 inch
£3,024
Venir la voir, voir l’avenir, la voir venir
Petites Luxures
Fine Art Drawings - 29.7 x 21 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.7 x 8.3 inch
£800
Heaven and Hell
Andres Serrano
Photography - 83.8 x 114.3 x 2.5 cm Photography - 33 x 45 x 1 inch
£100,475
Ancient Dunes, Photograph, Archival ink jet
Aaron Knight
Photography - 76.2 x 50.8 x 0.3 cm Photography - 30 x 20 x 0.1 inch
£603
Femme verte de dos
Jean-Gabriel Domergue
Print - 35 x 24.5 x 0.2 cm Print - 13.8 x 9.6 x 0.1 inch
£489
La plus précieuse des lèpres
Gilles Rimbault
Fine Art Drawings - 50 x 50 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 19.7 x 19.7 x 0 inch
£667
A woman / Une femme
Giuseppe del Debbio
Sculpture - 47 x 14 x 14 cm Sculpture - 18.5 x 5.5 x 5.5 inch
£4,002
Le bain
Olena Siniuhina
Fine Art Drawings - 24 x 18 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 9.4 x 7.1 x 0.4 inch
£71
Autoportrait
Cécile Beaupère
Fine Art Drawings - 91.5 x 62.5 x 0.2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 36 x 24.6 x 0.1 inch
£1,334
Seated Figure
John De Andrea
Sculpture - 83.8 x 63.5 x 137.2 cm Sculpture - 33 x 25 x 54 inch
£125,593
Homme au Repos
Françoise Leblanc
Fine Art Drawings - 65 x 50 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 25.6 x 19.7 x 0 inch
£347
Triptomatic. Death to the Hallmark Holliday
Carl Pascuzzi
Photography - 31 x 46 x 0.3 cm Photography - 12.2 x 18.1 x 0.1 inch
£623
Human body
'I wanted to conquer the world. But I also desperately wanted to understand human nature, and to know what was inside our bodies. To do this, I have spent whole night dissecting bodies, against the direct orders of the Pope. Nothing disgusts me. What I am looking for, truly, in all of my work and particularly in my painting, what I have looked for all my life, is to understand the mystery that is human nature' – from the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci in the 16th century.
At the time of writing these notes, da Vinci had already made greater understanding of the human body the primary objective of his investigations. Dissection and study were key to his development of a holistic knowledge of anatomy, which da Vinci believed was vital to the perfect rendering of the nude figures which he painted and drew.
Little by little, the traditional image of the human figure was uprooted and in its place new ways of interpreting the body developed. Contemporary artists relentlessly questioned the traditional codes of figure drawing, liberally reworking the representation of the body to create a new image that was dislocated, geometric, deformed and disfigured.
The body as an artistic subject is at once desired, fantasised, dreamt, transformed, deformed. For painters, photographers and sculptors alike the body represents a rite of passage in their artistic development. Many people say that they most appreciate the talents of an artists by way of their control over the complexity of the figure. For example, it's clear even in Matisse's later, more abstract collages that he had perfectly mastered the human form.
Representation of the body is fundamental to Western art: first and foremost because it suggests a representation of the self, and therefore affirms the artist's own existence and coexistence with the environment that surrounds them. At the beginning of art history, the only bodies represented were the gods, supernatural beings, and spirits who had taken on human form. The body, nude or clothed, is at once one of the most widely depicted and most deeply polemical subjects in Western art (think of the scandals provoked by Courbet's 'Origins of the World', or Renoir's 'Picnic on the Grass').
The body has always been the primary subject of an array of themes, and its history is rich and ancient. Initially, depiction of the body was closely linked to religion, where the Word became flesh in Genesis, but later in more secular times the arousal of the artist when faced with the body made for an equally popular theme. Latterly the notion of the body as an object of beauty was subverted by Cubism until depictions of bodies no longer bore any resemblance to reality or made any pretence of respecting the rules of proportion.
Finally, in modern art the body has taken on an abstract shape within space, becoming one with the environment. In some instances, the body has become the artist's own support, as with Klein's models. The body as an abstract concept is tangible in many different manifestations in art, even in pieces as unassuming as some of Rothko's paintings. It remains the subject of inexhaustible inspiration and eternal debate.