Expert: J Heuman - 9/21/2004

Question
-------------------------
to further explain what i mean by the death of the male nude, i am referring to the time during the neoclassical and romantic periods where the male nude fades away and the female nude replaces him.  also, reasons why this happened, maybe some references to some books, etc, thank you very much!
amanda

Followup To
Question -
i am doing a presentation on the death of the male nude in my survey of western art 3 class at NKU, i am having trouble finding sites and books on the subject, if there are any resources that u know of then that would be very helpful.  also, if u have any insight that would help that would be great.  thank you very much!
amanda cofer
Answer -
Greetings Amanda!

Thank you for your question.

I am unclear about what you mean by "the death of the male nude."  I see little evidence of it.  Google provides 1,790,000 results when searching for:

         male + nude + art

There are painters, photographers, printmakers, sculptors, ceramicists, etc.

So, are you referring to the death of the male nude in "fine art"?  Art before the 20th century was rife with male nudes -- considering the stranglehold the academy had upon Western art.  And even 20th century art is full of examples.  There are dozens, if not hundreds, of well-known "fine artists" who produce artwork featuring male nudes -- Paul Cadmus, Eric Fischl, Philip Pearlstein, Robert Mapplethorpe, Richard Attila Lukacs, etc.  Look at the Photorealists, Neoexpressionists, and New Figuration.  There have been male performance artists who were naked -- for example, Chris Burden and Bob Flanagan.

If you could clarify what you mean by "the death of the male nude," I'll try my best to help.

Best wishes,
J Heuman

Answer
Greetings Amanda!

Thank you for your follow-up clarification.

For more about the perceived shift from the male nude to the female nude during the 1800s, check out:

         Solomon-Godeau, Abigail.  Male Trouble: A Crisis
         in Representation.  W W Norton & Co, 1999.

Please note, not all artists abandoned the male nude.  Artists as varied as Antonio Canova, Ingres (Achilles Receiving the Ambassadors of Agamemnon, 1801), Theodore Gericault (Raft of the Medusa (1819), Bertel Thorvaldsen, Hippolyte Flandrin (Figure d'Etudes, 1835), Frederic Leighton, and others dealt unapologetically with the male figure -- often nude.

Best wishes, sincerely,
J Heuman