Blond Figure

1940s

Raphael Soyer

Painter, American, born Russia, 1899 - 1987

Shown from the knees up, a pale-skinned woman stands and clutches a white cloth to her body in this loosely painted, vertical composition. Her body is squared to us, but she turns her head to our right so that chin nearly touches that shoulder. Her face is tipped down, and her eyes are closed. She has a snub nose and full pink lips. Her long blond hair is pulled loosely up and back, and loose strands frame her face. She stands with her arms across her torso and one knee pushed a little forward. One spaghetti strap of her white tank top is looped over her shoulder, and the other has fallen down and off the other. She grips the white fabric around her waist and across her hips. A wooden table touches the side of her leg to tour left. The background is painted with streaks of olive and dark green. The artist signed the top left corner, “Raphael Soyer.”
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Throughout his long career, Raphael Soyer was preoccupied with the female figure. He painted numerous images of solitary nude or semiclothed models posing in his studio or home. Shown in three-quarter length, the woman in Blond Figure stands off-center toward the right of the composition, next to a table. She is set against a shallow, dark background and pressed close to the picture plane. Her form is softly illuminated by light that emanates from an unseen source on the left.

As with many of Soyer’s subjects, the woman has a disheveled appearance. Soyer often represented women in states of partial undress, resulting in paintings with pronounced but ambiguous sexual undertones. This image is intimate, capturing a private, unguarded moment. The model’s withdrawn, remote, and anguished quality imbues the scene with a mysterious sense of melancholy. Soyer’s interest in the psychology of his sitter was inspired by the Dutch master Rembrandt van Rijn.


Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Gift of James N. Rosenberg

  • Dimensions

    overall: 81.4 x 53.3 cm (32 1/16 x 21 in.)
    framed: 94.6 x 66.7 x 4.4 cm (37 1/4 x 26 1/4 x 1 3/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1989.25.1

More About this Artwork


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

James N. Rosenberg [1874-1970], New York; gift 1947 to National Collection of Fine Arts (now Smithsonian American Art Museum), Washington, D.C.;[1] transferred May 1989 to NGA.
[1] 1947 gift stipulated that the painting was to be transferred to the National Gallery of Art twenty years after the artist's death, or "when eligible" to enter the collection.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

2008

  • American Artists from the Russian Empire, Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, The University of Oklahoma, Norman; The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg; State Tretiakov Gallery, Moscow; San Diego Museum of Art, 2008-2010, no. 53, repro.

Bibliography

1992

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 339, repro.

Inscriptions

upper left: RAPHAEL / SOYER

Wikidata ID

Q20193244


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