1780
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Dominant colour
Bust of a Nude Woman is a 1780 by Jacques Antoine Marie Lemoine, a Romanticism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a woman’s face and bare shoulders drawn in soft black chalk. The paper is light blue, and the artist signed his name at the bottom. Lemoine made many portraits like this—quick, intimate studies of real people. The woman’s features look real, not idealized, so she might have been someone he knew. But no one today knows her name. If you like this quiet, careful style, look up sfumato—a technique that blends tones so smoothly you barely see the strokes.
Lemoine was famous for his black chalk portraits like this example of a bust of a nude girl. Given the sitter’s individualized features, this image could represent a specific portrait; however, her identity is now lost to modern viewers. Below the portrait on the blue oval mount, the artist signed and dated the work to indicate his authorship.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Jacques-Antoine-Marie Lemoine, also Lemoyne (17 July 1751 – 7 February 1824), was a French artist, known primarily for portraiture.
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