A Nude Woman Doing Her Hair Before a Mirror

Description

The painting shows a woman with her back turned, with bare torso by an oval mirror, that reflects her face and the top of her chest. Her left hand rests on a green dressing table in the image left. On the table you also see a box with an open lid. With her right hand she has lifted and taken to the brown hair that is tightly put up with center parting and chignon. Her big red left earlobe has a gold glistening earring. her right earring is also seen, not in the mirror, and hairstyle are also different in the mirror. The head is turned slightly to the left and sunk.

The woman's lower body is draped with a white cloth, which is comfortable very down her buttocks. Her right leg seems to be slightly bent upward in contrapposto.

The woman is located offset to the left relative to the center line of the image, whereas the mirror is on the right. The oval mirror with the wooden frame mirrors so as to face viewed approximately in the middle of the mirror. The mirror has a size so that only the top portion of the woman's breasts seen. The woman raised his right arm covers parts of the mirror image so you can not see the bottom part of the face. In the mirror image is also seen that women do not consider themselves in the mirror, but the gaze directed downward to the left. There is no eye contact with the viewer.

The wall where the mirror hangs is plain, however, with some text. In the left of the picture is an oblique shadow on the wall and down the left wall. On the bottom right is a panel at the height of her thighs. In the reflection you see a closed door.

The picture is not particularly large, only 33.5 x 26 centimeters.

Background

C. W. Eckersberg was a professor at the art academy and had in 1833 he introduced that students could paint for female nudes. Eckersberg painted together with his students, and painting with the woman comes from a session in late summer 1841. The model's name was Florentine and she stood model for over a month that summer. The position she occupies in Ecker's painting, drawing and painting, he and the students after the period from 9 August to 16 September. Two of the students' paintings are known. This is one of Ludvig August Smith and Sally Henriques. The composition of their paintings are similare. Henriques painted her back more s-shaped, and there are differences in how the face is covered by the right arm and the angle at which the arm is held. The color scheme also seems to be different. The woman's back in Ludvig August Smiths painting has an attitude there is more follow Eckersberg than Henriques. Unlike Eckersberg, Smith painted the woman roughly in the middle of the imag. In Ecker's painting the mirror image assumes a greater weight. From the angles of the images can conclude that Eckersberg has reserved the best seat for himself while Smith has stood by Ecker's right, Henriques far right.

For both student work one sees a necklace at her left hand and a bottle. From the wall hangs a draped blanket. Henriques and Smiths' paintings are somewhat larger than Eckersbergs thumbnail. Henriques is 88 x 62 cm, while Smith's entire 120 x 93 cm.

Eckersberg performed this study are Young girl who gets her hair. This image was created between 9 August and 11 September 1841 and sees the finished composition of lead and low ring. This image is the same size as the known painting. The pose of Florentine was recycled by Eckersberg years later in July 1850, in a drawing with lead and sepia and titled Standing model that puts her hair. The female model standing in contrapposto with the right hand led to the hair as in oil painting from 1841. The naked model is not draped and Ecker's point of view is completely different, so the woman standing in profile and is seen from the right side.

Provenance

Eckersberg sold the painting in 1843, when Bertel Thorvaldsen visited Eckersberg's studio at Charlottenborg with Baroness Christine Stampe on 9 February. She bought it for 20 Specier. "Mrs. Stampe got the little half-naked figure of the Florentine" wrote Eckersberg in his diary and the day after "Mrs. Stampe sent 20 Specier for the small Figure with bare back at her Toilet." Later a merchant Heinrich Hirschsprung toke ownership of the painting, and was registered in the Emil Hannover Eckersberg catalog from 1898. It was after that Hirschsprung acquired it in 1895 from Mrs Nanna Holtum.

Exhibition history

The painting has been exhibited several times and cataloged: Eckersberg in 1895 (catalog number 293), Hirschsprung 1902 (969) and London 1907 (166). It was not part of Statens Museum for Kunst large Eckersberg exhibition in 2015, Eckersberg – A beautiful lie, but was, however, reproduced and analyzed in the exhibition's accompanying book. [20] in 2013 the painting along with 69 other works from the Hirschsprung Collection on loan to Hamburger Kunsthalle. [21] It happened under the title Denmark's Breakthrough two Modernism. The Hirschsprung Collection from Eckersberg two Hammershøi.

In certain works one sees the painting dated to about 1837. [23] The reason apparently Emil Hannover presumption in his book The painter C. W. Eckersberg: A Study in Danish art history, where he wrote about the painting: "Seems painted around the time the female model studies (...) belonging to the Academy of Art." [18] In recent authoritative works from the Hirschsprung Collection indicated, however, the year the 1841st the correction came about after one up to show the naked golden age in 1994 had scrutinized Eckersbergs diaries and material from the School archives.

Eleven Ludvig August Smiths parallel painting Female model in front of a mirror included in the Loeb Danish Art Collection. [25] Eckersbergs study in the lead and make ring located at the National Gallery in Oslo, while drawing from 1850 when the female model standing in Florentines posture was in private ownership since it was cataloged for the exhibition the naked Golden Age.