Kneeling Nude
Medium
black and white pastel
Dimensions
image: 48 x 54.2 cm (18 7/8 x 21 5/16 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of the Anne and Jacques Baruch Collection
Accession Number
2002.50.48
Art Historical Context
**Kneeling Nude** (1927) by František Drtikol is striking black-and-white pastel drawing exemplifies the Czech artist's shift from photography to fine drawing in the interwar period. Measuring 48 x 54.2 cm, this intimate work captures a female figure in a poised, kneeling pose, emphasizing grace and introspection. Drtikol, renowned for early 20th-century Pictorialist photography of symbolic nudes, embraced pastel during the 1920s for its versatility—allowing soft, blended strokes that mimic the luminosity of light on skin, much like his photographic techniques. Pastel's crumbly texture enable...