Study of a Nude

Gauguin's Study of a Nude dates from his Paris years in the early 1880s, when he was still employed at a brokerage and painting on weekends under the influence of his friend and mentor Camille Pissarro. The model, Suzanne Bambridge, was a seamstress who posed in Gauguin's apartment; the resulting canvas was accepted at the 1881 Salon, making it one of his earliest significant public showings. Huysmans singled it out in his review as a refreshingly honest depiction of female flesh, contrasting it with the idealized nudes that dominated academic painting. It marks the point where Gauguin began to take himself seriously as a professional rather than a Sunday painter.

Gauguin builds the figure with dense, almost sculptural impasto, the flesh tones ranging from warm ochre to cool blue-grey in the shadows. The background is loosely handled, pushing the nude forward. Pissarro's influence is visible in the broken brushwork, though the modelling is more solid than strict Impressionist practice.