Female Nude with a Staff, 1498.
Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471–1528)
Pen and dark brown ink on cream laid paper, 12-3/16 in. x 8-11/16 in. Crocker Art Museum, E. B. Crocker Collection, 1871.3
This delicate drawing by Albrecht Dürer, the first by the artist to enter an American collection, was created in the early stages of his career. Elegantly twisting herself to the left, the nude young woman in this drawing appears to be studying the drapery cascading down from the long staff she holds at her side. The figure is composed of fine and closely spaced lines that become increasingly dense and crosshatched in the shadows giving form to the breasts, belly, shoulders and head. The light source comes from the upper left, and the variegations between light and dark give this rotating figure an almost three-dimensional effect.
Life drawings of nudes as studies of the human figure are among the earliest independent drawings from the 15th century and became a central theme of the Renaissance. Dürer’s drawing is one of the first such drawings north of the Alps and is part of a group of works he produced during the 1490s that focuses on the female nude. Also part of this grouping are several prints including Four Naked Women of 1497; The Dream of the Doctor of 1498; and the Small Fortune from circa 1497. The last engraving has all of the elements of the Crocker drawing, but instead of an idyllic figure in contrapposto it shows a more aged woman with a notably Gothic figure—rounded stomach, high waist, elongated proportions—seen from behind. Although the context of the figure is different, scholars believe that the Crocker drawing is a preparatory study for the nude female in The Dream of the Doctor.
Details
- artist/cultureAlbrecht Dürer
- nationalityGerman, 1471–1528
- titleFemale Nude with a Staff
- date1498
- mediumPen and dark brown ink on cream laid paper
- dimensions12-3/16 in. x 8-11/16 in.
- credit lineCrocker Art Museum, E. B. Crocker Collection
- accession no.1871.3
- collectionEuropean Art
dark brown ink, lower center, monogrammed and dated: AD [ligatured] 1498
brown ink, lower left corner, numbered (vertically): 81
verso, graphite, lower right: F O/I
verso, dark brown ink, lower right corner: 60
verso, lower center, erased: Lugt 2314 (Stiglmeier)
Johann Stiglmeier, Straubing, before 1856. Edwin Bryant Crocker, Sacramento, by 1871; gift of his widow Margaret to the Museum, 1885
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