Thoughts on "The Nude" in Art

And who is so barbarous as not to understand that the foot of a man is nobler than his shoe, and his skin nobler than that of the sheep with which he is clothed.
-Michelangelo

He who does not master the nude, cannot understand the principles of architecture. -Michelangelo

Libyan Sibyl from the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo, thought by some to be a male model for a female figure.

When we respect the nude, we will no longer have any shame about it. -Robert Henri

I look at a nude. There are myriads of tiny tints. I must find the ones that will make the flesh on my canvas live and quiver.
-Pierre-Auguste Renoir


There is no subject I can paint which is more frustrating and at the same time extremely satisfying than the figure.
-Ryan Swallow

I never think I have finished a nude until I think I could pinch it.
-Pierre-Auguste Renoir



It's the most important study there is and the most challenging and the most difficult. -Wayne Thiebaud -on drawing the nude

Bikini by Wayne Thiebaud