[Reclining Nude]

Art Historical Context

In this photograph, a nude woman reclines diagonally across the frame on a surface draped with patterned fabric. Her arms are raised, hands resting near her head, while a heavy curtain hangs in the upper left against a textured wall. The image appears in soft, warm sepia tones, with subtle variations in light and shadow that highlight the contours of the figure. Titled Reclining Nude, this salted paper print from a paper negative was created by Julien Vallou de Villeneuve between 1851 and 1853. Now in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, it measures roughly 4 13/16 by 6 5/16 inches and belongs to the museum’s Department of Photographs. Vallou de Villeneuve produced some of the earliest photographic studies of the nude figure. Such works provided painters with direct references to the human form and helped photography gain recognition as an artistic medium during the mid-nineteenth century.