Standing Female Nude, Conrad Meyer | Mia

standing nude woman; contraposto pose with PL arm out with elbow slightly bent; head tilted to PR — Standing Female Nude, c. 1650-1689
Conrad Meyer
Two colors of red chalk heightened with white chalk, black chalk preliminary indications, on paper prepared with red wash
Gift of Tom Rassieur in honor of Bruce Dayton 2011.22
Not on View
Born into a family of artists, Conrad Meyer is best known as a prolific printmaker and popular painter of portraits. Standing Female Nude was almost certainly drawn from life. The figure’s pose, however, calls to mind the subject of Eve, as seen perhaps most famously in Albrecht Dürer’s engraving of 1504.

Standing in classic contrapposto, Meyer’s figure covers her pudenda with a small bit of drapery held in her right hand. Her slightly lowered head is turned to her right, and her eyes look up. Her left arm and hand are extended in a rhetorical gesture. She seems almost to look toward a here-absent Adam while pointing at a culpable serpent. Though this hypothetical identity as Eve fits, given the extent of Meyer’s allegorical output the figure may stand for chastity or some other quality.

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Details

Title: Standing Female Nude
Dated: c. 1650-1689
Artist: Conrad Meyer
Nationality: Swiss
Artist Life: 1618 - 1689
Role: Artist
Gallery: Not on View
Department: European Art
Dimension: 16 1/4 × 10 5/8 in. (41.28 × 26.99 cm) (sheet)17 5/8 x 11 11/16 in. (44.77 x 29.69 cm) (mount)23 3/4 × 19 3/4 in. (60.33 × 50.17 cm) (outer frame)
Credit: Gift of Tom Rassieur in honor of Bruce Dayton
Accession Number: 2011.22
Medium: Two colors of red chalk heightened with white chalk, black chalk preliminary indications, on paper prepared with red wash
Country: Switzerland
Century: 17th century
Provenance: Sale, Schuler, Zurich, June 18, 2010, no. 4591; Sale, Sotheby's, New York, January 26, 2011, no. 571, to Rassieur; Tom Rassieur, Minneapolis (2011; gave to MIA)
Rights: Public Domain
Classification: Drawings
Object Name: Drawing
Wikipedia: Cite this information
Metadata: Click here to see the machine readable JSON data that underpins this page.
Curator Approved: This record has been reviewed by our curatorial staff but may be incomplete. These records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about this object, please email collectionsdata@artsmia.org.

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