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Exposed: The Victorian Nude

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The epitome of high culture or an assault on public morality? The nude figure was one of the most controversial issues in Victorian art. It was also one of the most conspicuous categories for the visual image at every level, from elite paintings for the Royal Academy to mass-produced photographs and magazine illustrations.



Exposed: The Victorian Nude provides a fascinating overview of the nude figure—both male and female—and the intriguing role it played in Victorian art. While it concentrates on painting, sculpture, and drawing, this beautifully illustrated reference also explores the depiction of the body in other media—including photography, popular illustration, advertising, and caricature—and discusses the issues of morality, uality, and desire that are relevant even today. Since nudes were an important subject for most Victorian artists, Exposed: The Victorian Nude showcases dazzling artwork from such legendary masters as Millais, Rossetti, Burne-Jones, Whistler, and Sargent, as well as pivotal figures of early English modernism. Cutting across the conventional categories of style and period, this guide offers a fresh, engrossing vision of Victorian art and culture unmatched anywhere else.





• Beautifully produced and full of breathtaking artwork

• Nudes are perennially popular with art lovers

• Book serves as a catalog for a traveling exhibition from the prestigious Tate Gallery that will visit several US museums, beginning with the Brooklyn Museum in September 2002

288 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1997

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Alison Smith

9 books1 follower
There is more than one Alison Smith in the Goodreads database. This entry is for Alison^^^^^^^^^^Smith, curator at the National Portrait Gallery..

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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
Profile Image for Cate Meredith.
Author 9 books44 followers
February 15, 2020
A quite good exhibition catalogue. I have two criticisms. 1.) The title is bad. It sounds salacious when in fact the point of the exhibition was to present these works as serious art, made for serious reasons. 2.I'd have preferred deeper scholarship on some of the paintings depicted.

Overall this is an accessible book with plenty of high quality images of paintings and sculpture that had been displayed and the roles the nude fulfilled in the Victorian era.
1,685 reviews19 followers
July 21, 2019
Features bare images of paintings, drawings, sculpture, and some film.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews

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