The Male Nude, The Wallace Collection

Tucked away in Marylebone’s Manchester Square, the Wallace Collection is a deeply under-appreciated gem in London’s art scene. This autumn it opens a window on an extraordinary period in European painting, with an exhibition of 40 male nudes from pre-revolutionary France – many of which have never been seen in Britain before.

Focussing on pieces produced at France’s Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture from the late 17th century up until the Revolution in 1789, the exhibition includes early studies by masters Hyacin the Rigaud, François Boucher and Jean-Marc Nattier – all of whom are represented in the Wallace’s own collection.  It’s a wonderful insight into an era in which mastery of the male form was the cornerstone of artistic training, and male anatomy at the heart of the curriculum.

Among the most exquisite pieces are Jean-Baptiste Isabey’s Seated Man Leaning on His Right Arm (1789), a true masterclass in the play of light on the human form. Another hallmark of this collection is its striking array of facial expressions. The paralytic dread of Charles de la Fosse’s Orestes Pursued by the Furies(1678), and the anguish in Nicolas de Largillière’s Titan Struck Down (1706), for example, bear witness to the importance of physiognomic studies in the school’s teaching programme, and the distinctive ‘académie’ style of painting that this engendered.

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