Human body
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Lady In Purple
Charlotte Hannah Crawford
Painting - 20 x 20 x 1 cm Painting - 7.9 x 7.9 x 0.4 inch
£1,333
Nude No. 4
Charlotte Hannah Crawford
Painting - 30 x 30 x 1 cm Painting - 11.8 x 11.8 x 0.4 inch
£1,333
Nude No.3
Charlotte Hannah Crawford
Painting - 30 x 30 x 1 cm Painting - 11.8 x 11.8 x 0.4 inch
£1,333
Nude No.2
Charlotte Hannah Crawford
Painting - 30 x 30 x 1 cm Painting - 11.8 x 11.8 x 0.4 inch
£1,333
Nude No.1
Charlotte Hannah Crawford
Painting - 30 x 30 x 1 cm Painting - 11.8 x 11.8 x 0.4 inch
£1,333
Lying Nude with Signals 1
Leo Guida
Painting - 30 x 70 x 3 cm Painting - 11.8 x 27.6 x 1.2 inch
£844
Lying Nude with Signals 1
Leo Guida
Painting - 30 x 70 x 1 cm Painting - 11.8 x 27.6 x 0.4 inch
£978
Untitled III
José Sierra
Photography - 101.6 x 58.9 x 0.3 cm Photography - 40 x 23.19 x 0.1 inch
£1,659
Eclipse, Melancholy serie
Olha Vlasova
Painting - 100 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 39.4 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
£1,333
Petite femme enceinte 3
Carl Jaunay
Sculpture - 12.5 x 9.5 x 7 cm Sculpture - 4.9 x 3.7 x 2.8 inch
£347
Danse des lasers
Arnaud Baumann
Photography - 30 x 45 x 0.1 cm Photography - 11.8 x 17.7 x 0 inch
£844
Solarized Roundism 01-07-22
Corné Akkers
Fine Art Drawings - 21.1 x 29.7 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 8.3 x 11.7 x 0.1 inch
£1,325
#4. From "La Piedra Sustituta II" Series
José Sierra
Photography - 101.6 x 62 x 0.3 cm Photography - 40 x 24.4 x 0.1 inch
£1,659
Le cerveau des amoureux
Jean-Jacques Venturini
Painting - 100 x 100 x 3 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1.2 inch
£889
Blue Bananas
Rakhmet Redzhepov (Ramzi)
Painting - 55 x 36 x 2 cm Painting - 21.7 x 14.2 x 0.8 inch
£1,333
What are your Neighbours Doing Next?
Hiromi Sengoku
Painting - 60.6 x 45.5 x 3 cm Painting - 23.9 x 17.9 x 1.2 inch
£1,333
Venus
Franciszek Starowieyski
Fine Art Drawings - 21 x 30 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 8.3 x 11.8 x 0 inch
£711
Sin título (Identity Testimonies Series)
Imanol Marrodán
Photography - 40 x 30 x 0.1 cm Photography - 15.7 x 11.8 x 0 inch
£755
Obra del Grupo Danza del Alma, Cuba
Sonia Almaguer
Photography - 32 x 24 x 2 cm Photography - 12.6 x 9.4 x 0.8 inch
£1,066
Kate With Tassles - Limited Edition Mick Rock Estate Print
Mick Rock
Photography - 40 x 40 x 0.1 cm Photography - 15.7 x 15.7 x 0 inch
£1,755
#13 From Cuerpo en Tensión Series
José Sierra
Photography - 101.6 x 67.6 x 0.3 cm Photography - 40 x 26.6 x 0.1 inch
£1,659
Female Figure in Tangerine
Kathleen Ney
Fine Art Drawings - 43.2 x 35.6 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 17 x 14 x 0.1 inch
£406
Male Figure in Blue
Kathleen Ney
Fine Art Drawings - 35.6 x 43.2 x 2.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 14 x 17 x 1 inch
£406
Nude
Albert Fernand-Renault
Fine Art Drawings - 44.5 x 60.5 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 17.5 x 23.8 x 0 inch
£444
Nude
Albert Fernand-Renault
Fine Art Drawings - 47 x 63 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 18.5 x 24.8 x 0 inch
£578
Some girls #11
Gwendoline Hausermann
Fine Art Drawings - 44 x 32 cm Fine Art Drawings - 17.3 x 12.6 inch
£800
Le Rolleiflex - Série Les Caprices de Madame Bovary
Takala
Photography - 105 x 105 x 4 cm Photography - 41.3 x 41.3 x 1.6 inch
£1,333
Le bain de Clotilde
Martine Haeuw
Photography - 75 x 50 x 1 cm Photography - 29.5 x 19.7 x 0.4 inch
£871
In Shelter Under Protection
Tetiana Pchelnykova
Painting - 80 x 60 x 1.8 cm Painting - 31.5 x 23.6 x 0.7 inch
£1,680
PS 233 La fauve s'habille en léopard - French school
Bazévian Delacapucinière
Painting - 70 x 50 x 3.8 cm Painting - 27.6 x 19.7 x 1.5 inch
£1,511
A moment in heaven
Linde Ergo
Sculpture - 160 x 45 x 60 cm Sculpture - 63 x 17.7 x 23.6 inch
£28,439
Couple femmes
Claude Guillaumin
Photography - 40 x 60 x 1 cm Photography - 15.7 x 23.6 x 0.4 inch
£1,466
Dawning Contours
Zakhar Shevchuk
Painting - 81 x 110 x 0.3 cm Painting - 31.9 x 43.3 x 0.1 inch
£2,133
Mademoiselle
Martine Lingelser-Schmidt
Sculpture - 36 x 23 x 7 cm Sculpture - 14.2 x 9.1 x 2.8 inch
£1,066
Pas d’bleu
Martine Lingelser-Schmidt
Sculpture - 20 x 16 x 6 cm Sculpture - 7.9 x 6.3 x 2.4 inch
£889
De l'amour (big)
Linde Ergo
Sculpture - 168 x 63 x 78 cm Sculpture - 66.1 x 24.8 x 30.7 inch
£21,285
Cristal
Marie-Madeleine Vitrolles
Sculpture - 97 x 16 x 16 cm Sculpture - 38.2 x 6.3 x 6.3 inch
£1,289
L'uomo Che Guarda - VI
Alexander Levich
Painting - 50 x 70 x 2 cm Painting - 19.7 x 27.6 x 0.8 inch
£791
L'uomo Che Guarda - V
Alexander Levich
Painting - 50 x 70 x 2 cm Painting - 19.7 x 27.6 x 0.8 inch
£791
White Square Nude
Zakhar Shevchuk
Painting - 110 x 90 x 3 cm Painting - 43.3 x 35.4 x 1.2 inch
£1,955
Le temps
Gwendoline Hausermann
Fine Art Drawings - 57 x 42 cm Fine Art Drawings - 22.4 x 16.5 inch
£844
Extimité
Philippe Huart
Fine Art Drawings - 96 x 67 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 37.8 x 26.4 x 0.4 inch
£3,555
Intimité
Philippe Huart
Fine Art Drawings - 96 x 67 x 1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 37.8 x 26.4 x 0.4 inch
£3,555
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.