Studieblad met zes naakte vrouwen en Eva c. 1906

Henri Fantin-Latour created this sketch of six nude women, including Eve, likely in the late 19th century. Fantin-Latour’s artistic milieu was a 19th-century French society where academic tradition coexisted with burgeoning avant-garde movements. Fantin-Latour created idealized and allegorical representations of women, often drawing from mythology and biblical narratives, like the figure of Eve here. Representations of women in art history, especially nudes, are often viewed through the lens of the male gaze. Fantin-Latour and his contemporaries participated in the construction of female identity through the art they made, frequently showing them as objects of beauty and desire. Here, Fantin-Latour's figures exist as studies, lacking a singular narrative. The artist wrestles with how to represent women at a time when women were fighting for greater autonomy and recognition. This piece reveals a moment of tension between traditional representations and the stirrings of a new cultural landscape.