Seated Nude

Seated Nude from 1820 at the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin is an early academic study showing Delacroix before he developed his mature Romantic style. His student work demonstrates the classical training that underlay his later radical departures. Delacroix executed the work with his characteristic broken, energetic brushwork and rich colorism, building up his surfaces in ways that directly influenced the Impressionists who studied his technique at the Louvre after his death.

The figure study shows academic rendering of anatomy with warm flesh tones. Delacroix's developing brushwork already hints at the vigor that would characterize his mature style.