Study of Male Nude, for "Apollo and the Muses," Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 1916 - 1921

Curator: Here we have John Singer Sargent’s "Study of Male Nude, for "Apollo and the Muses," Museum of Fine Arts, Boston," currently held at the Harvard Art Museums. Editor: There's such freedom in this sketch! It feels airy, like the figure is almost floating, despite the careful detail in his musculature. Curator: Sargent was working within a lineage of academic figure drawing, but his study complicates traditional power dynamics by focusing on the male form with an almost sensuous gaze. Editor: Hmmm, sensuous, yes, but perhaps also vulnerable? The unfinished limbs hint at a fragile, human quality, beyond the heroic ideal. Curator: Indeed, it's a fascinating dialogue between classical form and a very modern sensibility. Editor: It certainly gives you pause to think about the male gaze, doesn't it? And the beauty of the unfinished.