Artwork
Nude with Apple
Nude with Apple is an oil painting by the Post-Impressionist artist William James Glackens. It dates from 1909 and is held in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The painting shows a seated nude woman with blond, waist‑length hair and bangs, gazing directly at the viewer. She wears a choker and lipstick, with what appears to be a hat and mule‑style shoes, while a drape, couch, chair, and compote bowl frame her pose. In her hand she holds an apple. The work belongs to the nude genre and was executed in oil on canvas in 1909.
Technique & Style
The drapery behind her is handled broadly, with unmodulated passages of color that contrast with the more carefully modeled figure.
Painted in oil on canvas in 1909, Nude with Apple employs a fluid handling typical of Glackens’s early figure work, with softly blended transitions in flesh tones and a relaxed modeling of form that avoids sharp contours. The composition centers on a seated female nude whose contours are rendered with loose, rhythmic brushwork rather than precise anatomical definition, emphasizing relaxed volume over linear definition. The apple of the title serves as both a still-life element and a subtle compositional counterweight to her torso.
The drapery behind her is handled broadly, with unmodulated passages of color that contrast with the more carefully modeled figure.
History & Provenance
William James Glackens created the oil painting Nude with Apple in 1909. The work was executed on canvas and depicts a seated female figure surrounded by objects including an apple, a compote bowl, and a hat. The painting is currently held in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum.
The canvas measures 146.1 cm in height and 103.2 cm in width. The artwork was dated to 1909, during the artist's active period in the early twentieth century.
Overview
Painted in 1909, William James Glackens' Nude with Apple exemplifies the artist's mature style, characterized by bold, loose brushwork and a vibrant, saturated palette influenced by his admiration for Pierre-Auguste Renoir. The composition centers on a female nude seated in a red armchair, her form partially draped in a white sheet and a red blanket that creates a rhythmic interplay of color and texture. The figure holds an apple, engaging in the act of peeling it with her teeth, a gesture that introduces a candid, domestic intimacy to the traditional nude genre.
To her right, a small table holds a still life arrangement of fruit, including apples, a lemon, and a pear, which echoes the subject's action and reinforces the theme of abundance. A dark hat rests on the chair's arm, adding a casual, contemporary detail to the scene. Executed during a period when Glackens was fully embracing Impressionist techniques, the work moves away from the gritty realism of his earlier Ashcan School reportage toward a more sensual, decorative approach.
The painting demonstrates Glackens' ability to merge the immediacy of modern life with the timeless appeal of the female form, utilizing a warm, earthy color scheme to unify the figure with her surroundings.
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Artist & collection
Artist
William James Glackens was an American realist painter and one of the founders of the Ashcan School, which rejected the formal boundaries of artistic beauty laid down by the conservative National Academy of Design.
