Act-Studie

Nude: Women, Seashore

Dimensions

Image Dimensions: 13.7 x 12.5 cm : Art folio #3, plate #1

In 1900, critic Ludwig Schrank, the founder of the Photographische Korrespondenz, a journal reflecting the professional photographic community,  weighed in with his thoughts on this photograph by René Le Begue:

 “In a terrible, treeless, rocky gorge, there lies a beautiful, totally nude model, resting on a stone, just tumbled from the heights.  (Since the artist is French, the model is female, naturally.) Her hair falls freely over the boulders, her left hand dangles like that of a corpse.  Actually, a ghastly picture.  However, René Le Bègue knew how to introduce a redeeming note: with her right hand, the accident victim appears to take, ever so delicately between thumb and forefinger, a pinch of snuff…Let us admire these amateurs, who travel so far to deserts and rocky wildernesses in order to practice their art.” 1.

1. Rolf H. Krauss: Die Kunst in der Photographie, the German Camera Work: Part 2: Texts in Abstract: History of Photography, Volume 11, Number 1, January-March 1987: p. 278