''Study (Young Male Nude Seated Beside the Sea)'' (French: ''Jeune Homme nu assis au bord de la mer, figure d'étude'') is an oil-on-canvas painting by the French artist

Hippolyte Flandrin Jean-Hippolyte Flandrin (23 March 1809 – 21 March 1864) was a French Neoclassical painter. His most celebrated work, '' Jeune Homme Nu Assis au Bord de la Mer'' ("Young Male Nude Seated beside the Sea"), from 1836, is held in the Louvre. Bio ...

executed between 1835 and 1836. It is held in the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the '' Venus de Milo''. A central ...

, in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

, and is the best-known work by the artist.

History

Flandrin had won France's

Prix de Rome The Prix de Rome () or Grand Prix de Rome was a French scholarship for arts students, initially for painters and sculptors, that was established in 1663 during the reign of Louis XIV of France. Winners were awarded a bursary that allowed them t ...

in 1832, a bursary which provided the winner with a trip to Rome to concentrate on their vocation. There, Flandrin produced this

study Study or studies may refer to: General * Education ** Higher education * Clinical trial * Experiment * Observational study * Research * Study skills, abilities and approaches applied to learning Other * Study (art), a drawing or series of ...

, which he sent back to Paris in 1837, in fulfillment of the bursary's requirements for the student to submit works in the tradition of various genres. In 1857,

Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A neph ...

purchased the painting, which is now in the collection of Paris's

ephebe ''Ephebe'' (from the Greek ''ephebos'' ἔφηβος (plural: ''epheboi'' ἔφηβοι), anglicised as ephebe (plural: ephebes), or Latinate ''ephebus'' (plural: ''ephebi'') is the term for an adolescent male. In ancient Greek society and myth ...

", who sits nude on a rock with his arms wrapped around his legs and his head resting on his knees, eyes closed. There is a sea in the background, and no distinguishable landmarks locate the figure. The enigmatic scene provides no explanation for the figure's pose: Théophile Gautier (1811–1872) commented that the young man could be shipwrecked on a deserted island, or be a shepherd who has lost his flock. Ultimately, any explanation for this scene is left to the imagination, leading to comparisons with

Surrealist Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...

art in the twentieth century.

Critical evaluation

In examining the influence of German aesthetic theory on French art, critic

Elizabeth Prettejohn Elizabeth Francesca Prettejohn (born 15 May 1961) is an art historian and author of several books about art history. Her books have included '' Rossetti and his Circle'' (1997), ''The Art of the Pre-Raphaelites'' (2000) and ''Art for Art's Sake ...

finds that the roundedness of form and "flawless" modeling of flesh would have met with

Johann Joachim Winckelmann Johann Joachim Winckelmann (; ; 9 December 17178 June 1768) was a German art historian and archaeologist. He was a pioneering Hellenist who first articulated the differences between Greek, Greco-Roman and Roman art. "The prophet and foundin ...

's approval as an exemplar of the beautiful. Prettejohn compares the figure's almost circular pose and sparse framing with that of

Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested on ...

's ''

Vitruvian Man The ''Vitruvian Man'' ( it, L'uomo vitruviano; ) is a drawing by the Italian Renaissance artist and scientist Leonardo da Vinci, dated to . Inspired by the writings by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius, the drawing depicts a nude man in two s ...

''.

Cultural influence

Vital to the painting's spread were reproductions based on an 1887 engraving by

Jean-Baptiste Danguin Jean-Baptiste is a male French name, originating with Saint John the Baptist, and sometimes shortened to Baptiste. The name may refer to any of the following: Persons * Charles XIV John of Sweden, born Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, was King ...

that was commissioned by the state. As awareness of the work grew, the painting, despite argually meant to have any sexual subtext, became an

icon An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Catholic churches. They are not simply artworks; "an icon is a sacred image used in religious devotion". The mos ...

of homosexual culture in the 20th century. Photographers

Marcel Moore Marcel Moore (born Suzanne Alberte Malherbe, 19 July 1892 – 19 February 1972) was a French illustrator, designer, and photographer. She, along with her romantic and creative partner Claude Cahun, was a surrealist writer and photographer. Ear ...

and

Claude Cahun Claude Cahun (, born Lucy Renee Mathilde Schwob; 25 October 1894 – 8 December 1954) was a French surrealist photographer, sculptor, and writer. Schwob adopted the pseudonym Claude Cahun in 1914. Cahun is best known as a writer and self-port ...

adopted the pose in a photograph of the lesbian Cahun, c. 1911. The painting was similarly evoked in early twentieth-century art photography by

F. Holland Day Fred Holland Day (23 July 1864—23 November 1933), known professionally as F. Holland Day, was an American photographer and publisher. He was prominent in literary and photography circles in the late nineteenth century and was a leading Pict ...

and

Wilhelm von Gloeden Wilhelm Iwan Friederich August von Gloeden (September 16, 1856 – February 16, 1931), commonly known as Baron von Gloeden, was a German photographer who worked mainly in Italy. He is mostly known for his pastoral nude studies of Sicilian boy ...

, and later by

Robert Mapplethorpe Robert Michael Mapplethorpe (; November 4, 1946 – March 9, 1989) was an American photographer, best known for his black-and-white photographs. His work featured an array of subjects, including celebrity portraits, male and female nudes, self-p ...

.Latimer

Notes

References

* Aldrich, Robert and Garry Wotherspoon (2003). ''Who's who in gay and lesbian history: from antiquity to World War II''. Routledge. . * Latimer, Tirza True (2005). ''Women together/women apart: portraits of lesbian Paris''. Rutgers University Press, pp. 71–73. . * Prettejohn, Elizabeth (2005). ''Beauty & Art, 1750–2000''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 65–67. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Study (Young Male Nude Seated Beside the Sea) 1836 paintings Paintings in the Louvre by French artists Paintings by Jean-Hippolyte Flandrin Nude art