Mid Century French Nude Study, Charcoal Heightened with White, Silvered Montparnasse Frame

Period
Mid 20th century, French

Size
28 x 24½ inches, framed

A seated nude, charcoal heightened with white on toned paper.

The figure is seen from behind and turned away, the face hidden, against a bare ground. The modelling is smooth and stylized, the charcoal rubbed into continuous tone through the back and the hip, and the white heightening sits along the lit edges on the raised tooth of the paper. The whole weight of the drawing is carried by the contour of the back and the shoulder.

Sold as found.

The frame is a cadre Montparnasse, distressed silver over carved wood, with a white liner.

Historical Context
The Montparnasse frame belongs to the Paris studios of the interwar years, a broad flat profile finished in silver or white that was made to sit quietly around modern painting and drawing. It carries a name because the quarter it came from was where the studios and the framers were. Drawing from the living model remained the last stage of French academic training well into the twentieth century, taken up after years of copying casts and prints, and a large sheet worked to this degree of finish comes from a pose held across several sessions in the atelier.