The image depicts an artistic rendering of a person's upper body, shown from the back, and without clothing. The person is seated and turned away from the viewer, with their upper torso and head displayed. The head is slightly bent forward and to the side, with long hair that appears loosely gathered, suggesting the style of a bun or ponytail. The lines of the drawing are textured and abstracted, giving a sense of depth and contour to the figure's form. There are no visible facial features due to the angle and style of the depiction. The surrounding area is filled with dense, hatched lines, creating a dark, lightly patterned background that contrasts with the lighter figure. The setting appears to be inside, as indicated by the enclosed space and the straight, horizontal line that may suggest a piece of furniture or architectural detail. There are no other objects or jewelry present in the image.
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The image depicts an artistic rendering of a person's upper body, shown from the back, and without clothing. The person is seated and turned away from the viewer, with their upper torso and head displayed. The head is slightly bent forward and to the side, with long hair that appears loosely gathered, suggesting the style of a bun or ponytail. The lines of the drawing are textured and abstracted, giving a sense of depth and contour to the figure's form. There are no visible facial features due to the angle and style of the depiction. The surrounding area is filled with dense, hatched lines, creating a dark, lightly patterned background that contrasts with the lighter figure. The setting appears to be inside, as indicated by the enclosed space and the straight, horizontal line that may suggest a piece of furniture or architectural detail. There are no other objects or jewelry present in the image.

National Gallery of Art · Print

Back of a Woman (Dos de Femme)

Albert Besnard

Date
1889
Medium
etching and roulette on Van Gelder laid paper
Dimensions
plate: 13 x 8.8 cm (5 1/8 x 3 7/16 in.) sheet: 17.2 x 13.5 cm (6 3/4 x 5 5/16 in.)
Classification
Print
Accession number
1993.71.4
Credit line
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Bell
Time span
1876 to 1900
Department
CG-E

Subjects and terms

  • French
  • etching
  • female
  • figure
  • Nude
  • roulette
Provenance

Professor and Mrs. Daniel Bell, Cambridge; gift to NGA, 1993.

Inscription

lower right in graphite: ABesnard

Marks

None.

Watermarks

Van Gelder

NGA object ID 83821. Collection metadata is reproduced under CC0. This work is included because its NGA published-image record is marked open access; visitors should recheck the source record before substantial reuse.