Models in the Studio
As early as the sixteenth century, the European Art Academies considered the study of the human figure an essential part of the art students training and experience. During the mid and late nineteenth century, Canadian artists studying in France and Europe, returned to Canada with broadened perspectives and a European flair for the nude model in their practice of Modernism.
In Montreal, Scottish born, William Brymner (1855-1925), trained in the academic tradition in Paris under William-Adolfe Bouguereau (1825-1905). Brymner became President of the Royal Canadian Art Academy in 1907. He taught at the Art Association of Montreal, an art college and international art gallery which later became the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. A number of his art students achieved prominence in the branch of portraiture and painting from life; among these were members of the Beaver Hall Group, including Prudence Heward (1896-1947), Edwin Holgate (1892-1977) and Randolf Hewton (1888-1960).
In France, Edgar Degas (1834-1917), was widely considered the creator of a truly modern nude. Degas employed masterful drawing skills to represent the nude body in movement, in muscular tension, in sensuous form. (I will get back to Degas' nudes in a further section on drawing of the nude figure and pastel work).
_________________________________________________________________
The following paintings are my own; these nudes were studied and drawn on canvas in studio and afterwards I painted them at home.
Oil on Canvas 20 in X 20inches
Oil on Canvas 20 in X 15 inches
Oil on Canvas 20in X 20 inches
Oil on Canvas , 16 in X 12 inches
Oil on Canvas; 16 in X 12 inches
