Reclining Male Nude (verso) (c. 1887–89): Art, History and Details

Reclining Male Nude (verso) (c. 1887–89) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Édouard Vuillard (French, 1868–1940).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

During the early 1890s, Édouard Vuillard repeatedly represented his mother and older sister, Marie, in domestic settings. This drawing relates to a pastel and painting, all of which show Marie standing before a mirror, raising her arms as if to adjust her hairstyle. A charcoal study of a nude male appears on the verso, suggesting that the artist may have reused the sheet.

Object facts

• Title: Reclining Male Nude (verso)
• Date: c. 1887–89
• Creator attribution: Édouard Vuillard (French, 1868–1940)
• Culture: France, 19th century
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: Black chalk
• Dimensions: Sheet: 34.8 x 27.2 cm (13 11/16 x 10 11/16 in.)
• Collection: DR - French
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 2018.77.b

A detail from the museum

Vuillard probably created this drawing while he was a student at Paris's Académie Julian, where he met the other artists who would become the Nabis.

Collection credit

Bequest of William Kelly Simpson

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.