A Seated Female Nude

Dutch artist Rembrandt van Rijn painted this study of a seated nude woman with characteristic honesty and directness. Unlike idealized classical nudes, Rembrandt depicted the actual body before him, with all its individual characteristics.

Rembrandt's nudes were controversial in his time for their realism. He painted flesh as he observed it, not as classical convention dictated. This frank approach influenced later artists seeking to depict the human body truthfully. It hangs at the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.