Boudoir

Willem de Kooning's Boudoir depicts the outline of a female figure (left) seated before what is most likely a dressing table.  Directly above the dressing table is a rectangular form outlined in blue, which may be read as a mirror or a window.  While this subject may be traced back to the long tradition of the female nude sitting before a mirror, de Kooning's abstract presentation of the figure is a radical departure.  Here, as in other paintings, the degree of abstraction, the velocity of the artist's gesture and the apparent violence with which the figures are rendered make his women look like nothing before them.  When this work was painted in 1951, de Kooning was recognized as a leader in the Abstract Expressionist movement.