Nude Woman Standing, Seen from the Back with Her Hands on Her Hips

Sculptor Auguste Rodin was a prolific draftsman who, especially in his later years, made thousands of drawings of nude models in his studio. Energetic and fluid, they record unexpected poses and unusual viewpoints that depart from any established European art-historical precedents.

A contemporary described Rodin’s method: “Equipped with a sheet of paper . . . and a graphite pencil . . . he gets his model to strike a more or less unstable pose, then draws quickly without taking his eyes off the model. The hand roams haphazardly, the pencil often runs off the page. . . . Not once does [he] look at it. This snapshot of movement is taken in less than a minute.”