Book Review: Life Class: The Academic Male Nude 1820-1920

---------------------

Title: Life Class: The Academic Male Nude 1820-1920

Edited by Stephen Boyd, Introduced by Edward Lucie-Smith

First Published 1989

Publisher: GMP Publishers, Ltd

London, England

ISBN: 0-85449-103-1

----------------------------------------

I finally found this little volume after searching for many months (it was behind the paper shredder in the computer room). Actually, I wasn't even looking for it when I found it so that old adage that the lost will be found when it wants to be found still holds true. It is a small book so it hid itself very well, either that or my memory is shot all to heck, probably the latter. The book is based upon an exhibition by St. Jude's Gallery in London back in 1989. I get the impression that the Gallery exhibition and the book itself were targeted at lovers of the male nude and not necessarily as a history of the 19th century academic nude per se. The author does bring up an important point that early and mid-19th century art schools were segregated, women making an appearance as students in life-classes only comparatively late in the 19th century. Amazon still carries the book in its inventory but it is somewhat expensive for such a small volume (36 pages).

Here are a few examples of the illustrations:

---------------------------------

Johannes Ottesen (1875-1936) Nude Youth, leaning on stool (Danish School)

Adrian Scott Stokes (1854-1935) Standing Figure, pencil on paper

Carl Hermann Martini (1796-1869) Standing Male Figure

Duncan MacGregor Whyte (1866-1953) Seated Figure in Profile

Henry James Haley (Studying 1897-1899) Standing Frontal Nude (1897)

Mid-19th Century French School .. Standing Nude Male, Facing Left. (Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris)

Mid-19th Century French School - Standing Male Figure (Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris)

Pierre-Paul Boissart (exhibiting 1911-1938) Nude Male Model (ca.1910)

Sir John Everett Millais (1829-1896) Standing Male Nude with Staff (1846)

William Frank Calderon (1865-1943) -- Rear View of a Standing Man Holding a Staff (1880)