Night Nude
1953
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
woodcut in black on wove paper
Dimensions
image: 24.5 x 60.9 cm (9 5/8 x 24 in.) sheet: 29.7 x 72.5 cm (11 11/16 x 28 9/16 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of the Avery Family, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art
Accession Number
1991.233.53
Art Historical Context
**Night Nude**, a striking 1953 woodcut by American modernist Milton Avery, captures the essence the female form in bold, monochromatic lines. Printed in black ink on wove paper, relief print measures 24.5 x 60.9 cm for the image and 297 x 72.5 cm for the sheet. Avery, renowned for his poetic landscapes and simplified figures influenced by Henri Matisse, ventured into printmaking later in his career, dist his signature flattened forms and subtle emotional depth into this intimate horizontal composition. Woodcuts like this one highlight Avery's mastery of reductive techniques: carving away neg...
About the Artist
Milton Avery
Milton Avery, born on March 7, 1885, in Altmar, New York, to a working-class family—his father a tanner—grew up in modest circumstances. After his family's move to the Hartford area of Connecticut in 1898, he took on various manual jobs, including as a mechanic, clerk, and construction worker, to support himself and relatives following family tragedies. His artistic path began around 1905 at the C...