Nude with Her Back Turned

Nude with Her Back Turned by Edvard Munch from 1902, held at the Munch Museum, belongs to his extended series of female nude studies made during this prolific figure-painting period. The turned-back pose was among the most classical of nude positions — seen from the rear, the figure presents a different quality of presence than the frontal nude, more private and less confrontational. Munch's interest in this pose reflects his general engagement with the full range of the body's possibilities as a subject, and the turned-back figure also carries psychological resonance — the subject who turns away, whose expression remains hidden.

Munch renders the back-turned figure with a focus on the body's planes and the fall of light across the curved surfaces of the back and shoulders. His handling uses flowing strokes that follow the contours of the body, with the background kept simple to emphasize the figure's organic form.