Nude with Green Background (Studio 27)

Description

Moses Soyer is one of the preeminent postwar figurative painters in the United States. His lifelong interest in figurative painting began in childhood, when he and his brothers modeled for one another. Raphael Soyer (1899–1987), Moses’ twin brother, also became an acclaimed painter. This early exposure to figurative work helped Soyer to develop uniquely expressive and honest depictions of the human form.
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Nude with Green Background" is a brilliant example of Soyer’s investigations into the human form. His wife, Ida, was a ballet dancer, and many of his models were dancers, costume designers, writers and stage actors who worked with her. He also painted family members and art students who stopped by his studio in the Chelsea Hotel in New York City. In 1964, Soyer wrote that the bodies of every man and woman he ever painted were deeply expressive in their own right: "There are no two leaves on a tree that are exactly alike; each human being is a world unto itself, both spiritually and physically. Be very humble before that human being. Be filled with wonder."
(A. Dixon, 20th Century Gallery installation, June 1999)