Seated nude 1925

Emile Bernard’s "Seated Nude" is a great example of how you can use the classical genre to try out new ideas. It must have been made in oil on canvas, you can see that from the texture of the brushstrokes. I can imagine Bernard, a contemporary of Gauguin and Van Gogh, in his studio, trying to find new directions in painting. Look at how the heavy lines of the model’s contours contrast with the softness of the paint modeling her skin. The contrast gives it this strange tension. I wonder whether he struggled to represent the female form, maybe he was trying to flatten the image while at the same time wanting to represent her in three dimensions. You can feel the artist experimenting with the tradition and trying to find a new way of approaching it. Painting is always about conversations across time, inspiring each other’s creativity and pushing boundaries. This piece is interesting because it shows how painting can embrace ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations.