82.26 Nude Study

1932

Cahrcoal and pastel, 18 1/2 x 23 1/2" (46.9 x 59.6 cm)

Signed, ll: Boeckl 32

Provenance: Neue Galerie, Vienna, June 1932

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82.26 Nude Study

1932

Cahrcoal and pastel, 18 1/2 x 23 1/2" (46.9 x 59.6 cm)

Signed, ll: Boeckl 32

Provenance: Neue Galerie, Vienna, June 1932

Nude Study 1932

 In the early 1930s, Boeckl began a series of anatomical studies. His compositional interest in these studies was clearly an exploration of foreshortening and the naturalistic rendering of the human form; but other, more spiritual, desires also came into play. Many of these sketches were of autopsies and of the dead, a fact which the artist intentionally emphasized. In his own writings, the artist explained his feelings:

  “In the many drawings that I made of the dead, I gained a very deep sense of death and life and learned of the fleeting coincidentally of existence (das Zufällige vom Wesentlichen).” While this nude study depicts a living form, the viewer can recognize Boeckl’s spiritual motivations.