Post-impressionist Female Nude By Maurice Barbey (1880-1939) ​​​​​​​1920s-1930s

Post-Impressionist Female Nude by Maurice Barbey (1880-1939)
1920s-1930s

Subject: Female nude in a moment of domestic tranquility
Date: 1920s-1930s
Artist: Maurice Barbey (1880-1939), Parisian

Description:
This post-impressionist painting by Maurice Barbey depicts a female nude in an intimate and suspended atmosphere. The woman is shown drying her legs with a towel in front of a basin. Soft colors, applied in broad strokes, alternate with thin graphic lines outlining the figure, creating an intriguing interplay between two-dimensionality and volume. This contrast gives the painting a sense of tangibility and weight, providing substance and solidity to the female form, while maintaining a certain lightness in the simplified shapes.

The use of light and color conveys a nearly tactile perception of the softness of the skin, immersing the viewer in the tranquility of the everyday gesture. The composition reflects the femininity of the scene, with a treatment of the forms that highlights volume, while the interplay between line and color maintains a subtle visual tension between surface and depth.

Note on the artist:
Maurice Barbey, Parisian painter and illustrator, is also known for his iconic Art Deco-style advertising posters. Notable among these are “Simplon-Orient-Express” (1921), “Grenoble” (1928), and “Amilcar” (1932). These posters are highly valued and sought after by collectors.