Two female nudes
Original Language TitleUne étude de nu de deux femmes
Artist
Auguste Belloc
(French, 1805 - 1873)
Dateca. 1855
MediumSalt print
DimensionsImage and sheet: 8 5/16 × 6 1/8 inches (21.11 × 15.56 cm)
Mount: 8 7/16 × 6 5/16 inches (21.43 × 16.03 cm)
Mount: 8 7/16 × 6 5/16 inches (21.43 × 16.03 cm)
Credit LineGift of the Hall Family Foundation
Object number2012.28.1
Signednone
Inscribednone
Markingsnone
On View
Not on viewCollections
DescriptionImage of two female nudes seated next to each other. The figure on the left is wearing strands of beads and she rests her head on her left hand. Fabric is draped beneath them and along the right edge of the frame.Gallery LabelA masterful printer, Auguste Belloc created nudes that surpassed the typical erotic fare found in Parisian markets. In this scene, Belloc strategically positions the models and surrounding drapery to make the photograph appear more artistic than pornographic. Though nude paintings, drawings, and sculptures were immensely common, at this time photography was treated far more harshly by censors. In October 1860, the French government seized some 5,000 of Belloc’s photographs, declaring them obscene, and by 1868 he had abandoned his photographic studio.
Purchased from Vintage Works, Chalfort, PA by The Hall Family Foundation, Kansas City, MO, 2015;
Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2015.
Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2015.
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Charles Nègre
1859
2017.44.11
