Standing Nude
1919-1920
Medium
woodcut in black on laid paper
Dimensions
image: 8.3 x 3.8 cm (3 1/4 x 1 1/2 in.) sheet: 24.8 x 15.9 cm (9 3/4 x 6 1/4 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Jack and Margrit Vanderryn
Accession Number
1997.128.4
Art Historical Context
Max Weber's *Standing Nude* (1919-1920) is a striking woodcut print, rendered in bold black ink on laid paper. This intimate work measures just 8.3 x 3.8 cm for the image itself, with a larger sheet of 24.8 x 15.9 cm, close contemplation. Created shortly after World War I, captures Weber's modernist sensibilities as a Russian-born American artist who bridged European avant-garde influences with American innovation. A key figure in New York's early 20th-century art scene, Weber drew from Cubism, Expressionism and Primitivism, often distilling the human form into angular, rhythmic lines. The wo...
About the Artist
Max Weber
Max Weber (1881–1961), born in Białystok in the Russian Empire (now Poland) to Orthodox Jewish parents, immigrated to Brooklyn, New York, at age ten with his family, joining his tailor father.) There, he pursued art studies at the Pratt Institute under Arthur Wesley Dow, an innovative teacher who emphasized expression and form over traditional narrative, drawing from Japanese art and Paul Gauguin....