Atlas & Arden 19th-century European academic pencil study of a bearded male nude in contrapposto, dated October 1867, in an old carved giltwood frame.

European Academy Male Nude Study, Pencil on Paper, Dated October 1867, Old Giltwood Frame

$685.00
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Atlas & Arden 19th-century European academic pencil study of a bearded male nude in contrapposto, dated October 1867, in an old carved giltwood frame.
  • Atlas & Arden 19th-century European academic pencil study of a bearded male nude in contrapposto, dated October 1867, in an old carved giltwood frame.
  • Atlas & Arden 19th-century European academic pencil study of a bearded male nude in contrapposto, dated October 1867, in an old carved giltwood frame.
  • Atlas & Arden 19th-century European academic pencil study of a male nude, dated October 1867, in an old carved giltwood frame.
  • Atlas & Arden 19th-century European academic pencil study of a bearded male nude in contrapposto with arms crossed, dated October 1867.
  • Atlas & Arden 19th-century European academic pencil study of a bearded male nude in contrapposto, dated October 1867, in an old carved giltwood frame.
European Academy Male Nude Study, Pencil on Paper, Dated October 1867, Old Giltwood Frame

European Academy Male Nude Study, Pencil on Paper, Dated October 1867, Old Giltwood Frame

$685.00

Individually photographed · Condition noted · Secure checkout

Story

He stopped me cold at the flea market. He'll do the same on a wall.

A skilled European academic male nude study in pencil, dated October 1867, drawn in the classical academy tradition of the mid-nineteenth century. The figure stands in contrapposto, arms crossed, gaze cast down — a moment of stillness rendered with the kind of patient observation that defined serious academic training across Europe. The bearded subject and loose contour ghosting around the figure are consistent with a working academy study from the period, when draftsmanship formed the foundation of formal artistic education.

The handwritten inscription at the lower margin appears to record the date October '67. The work is possibly German or Austrian in origin, though the images alone do not allow a more precise attribution. Sourced at a flea market in Chelsea, New York, and presented in an old carved giltwood frame likely dating from the late nineteenth or early twentieth century.

This is a piece of art history hiding in plain sight. It belongs in a library, a study, or above a writing desk. Somewhere it can be looked at slowly.

Details

European, possibly German or Austrian, dated October 1867 by inscription. Pencil on paper, depicting a standing male nude, in an old carved giltwood frame likely dating from the late nineteenth or early twentieth century.

Sourcing Note

He really did stop me cold. I found him at a flea market in Chelsea, leaning among a jumble of framed pictures, and there was something about the pose that immediately held me — the lowered gaze, the crossed arms, the quiet confidence of the drawing.

He also reminded me immediately of a male nude sculpture in Munich’s Glyptothek that I used to love visiting when I lived there — an antique figure filtered through a nineteenth-century eye. This drawing had that same sense of classical beauty carried forward through time.

Then I saw the date: October 1867. Suddenly he wasn’t just a beautiful figure study; he was a surviving moment from an academy studio more than a century and a half ago. I love pieces like this, where the hand of the artist still feels present and the passage of time has only made the object more compelling. The old carved gilt frame seemed part of the story too. I didn’t want to separate any of it.

Some finds take explaining. This one didn’t. I knew exactly why he was coming home with me.

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