Nudo femminile su un letto

Van Gogh painted very few nudes in his life, mostly because he could rarely spare the money for a model. This one belongs to the two years he spent in Paris from 1886, living in his brother Theo's apartment and soaking up the bright colour of the Impressionists. He worked it onto an oval canvas, an unusual shape for him. The woman lies back with her arms behind her head, wearing nothing but a pair of white stockings, and van Gogh makes no effort to smooth or flatter her. Where a fashionable Salon nude would be all polished curves, hers is a real, heavy, ordinary body. He was reading the art around him and pushing against it at the same time. The picture later entered the collection of the American chemist Albert Barnes, where it still hangs outside Philadelphia.