Nude (Around 1927)

Klein was in Paris from 1925 to 1927, where he met and attended a Painting Free School with Foujita. Nudes proliferated in his paintings from his time in Paris. In the present drawing, Klein stylizes, subtly shading the body along the delicately rounded contours, but not embellishing. The face is only indicative, the woman's hairstyle following the fashion of the time. In Klein's work, as in that of Eights, the nude was a vehicle and a means of formal innovation. Initially placed in a neutral studio environment, the models were later placed in landscapes and then arranged in multi-figure compositions.