Untitled (Study of Standing Male Nude)
ca. 1874-1876
Medium
Drawing
Classification
Drawing
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Allyn Cox
Accession Number
1983.31.9
Tags
Art Historical Context
Kenyon Cox created this sensitive study of a standing male nude around 1874–1876, during his formative years as a young artist. As a drawing, the work reflects the rigorous academic training common in the late nineteenth century, when aspiring painters devoted countless hours to mastering human anatomy from live models. Cox, who would later become a leading figure in American art education and criticism, used such exercises to develop the precise draftsmanship that characterized his mature paintings and murals. The piece exemplifies the Beaux-Arts emphasis on ideal form and balanced proportio...
About the Artist
Kenyon Cox · 1856–1919
Kenyon Cox (1856–1919) was born on October 27 in Warren, Ohio, to General Jacob Dolson Cox, a prominent politician and Civil War veteran, and Helen Finney Cox. Despite fragile health, young Cox pursued art at the Art Academy of Cincinnati before advancing to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. In 1877, he traveled to Paris, studying first under Carolus-Duran, then at the Éco...