Standing Female Nude Seen from Behind
1940s
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
graphite on wove paper
Dimensions
overall: 27.9 x 21.6 cm (11 x 8 1/2 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Rufus F. Zogbaum
Accession Number
1998.113.11
Art Historical Context
In the quiet intimacy of graphite on wove paper, Franz Kline's *Standing Female Nude Seen from Behind* (1940s) captures a poised figure turned away from the viewer, her form rendered with fluid, economical lines. Measuring just 11 x 8½ inches, this modest drawing from the National Gallery of Art—generously gifted by Rufus F. Zogbaum—invites us to appreciate the subtle play of light and shadow across the model's back and hips, emphasizing volume and contour through delicate hatching and contouring. Created during Kline's formative years in New York, before his explosive shift to Abstract Expre...
About the Artist
Franz Kline
Franz Kline (1910–1962) was born on May 23 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, a gritty coal-mining town in the heart of the state's industrial region. His early life was marked by tragedy: at age seven, his father, a saloon keeper, died by suicide, prompting his mother to remarry and enroll him in Girard College, a Philadelphia academy for fatherless boys. Kline later attended Lehighton High School, w...