RIPPL-RÓNAI, József
(1861, Kaposvár - 1927, Kaposvár)

Nudes (Models)

1910
Oil on cardboard, 67 x 97,5 cm
Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest

In the early 1910s, Rippl was engaged in painting female nudes ("Nude on Terrasse", 1909, "Two Nudes on Red Couch"). Fenella, a Spanish model who he met in Paris, arrived in Kaposvár at that time. She was a major inspiration for the artist to paint nudes. He was engaged in portraying the female body in graphics as well ("Three", "Nude", 1910). He did a series in tint entitled "Models Putting on Stockings" around 1910, and published "Fifty Drawings by József Rippl-Rónai", an album with nudes, in 1913.

Both models are portrayed with yellow patches, typical of the "corn" pictures, in the background in an interior in Kaposvár. Forms are emphasized with wide brown contours. The decorativity of the picture arises from unmixed noisy colours and a plain composition. The deliberate use of blue-yellow and green-red, i.e. the complementary colours, make the effect more intensive. The cardboard appears under the rough, mosaic-like brushwork. Rippl-Rónai does not use colours consequently on all objects in the background and the surroundings, he paints the female bodies in mixed colours and uses contrasts of light and shadow to make figures more plastic. Plainness, decorativity and contours can be interpreted as a second, late appearance of art nouveau. The picture is linked to this style because of its frivolous and provocative composition.


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