The Beautiful Model

In 1928 Derain told a friend that for five or six months of every year he did little but draw nudes, three or four drawings a day, trying to find a pose. This canvas dates from five years earlier, 1923, when he had already been painting seated nudes for about three years. The model was a professional, posing in the studio on a table or bench covered with a cloth. One arm is bent up behind her head and one knee is drawn up, both working against the straight line of her back. Light falls on her from one side, and her body comes forward out of an almost black background. The brushwork is soft and feathery, blurring skin and hair at the edges. Below her, the grey-white cloth is scrubbed in with quick, broken strokes. The painting hangs at the Orangerie on the lower level, in Room 9.