Study of a Nude was published in Sentiment D’Art En Photographie with the issue of January, 1899. The competition had been announced by the publication the previous November:

Competition of THE MONTH of NOVEMBER. —General competition: Study of nudity. Special competition . — Study of nudity. Personification of the youth.—Slender and graceful forms, whose outlines especially must be studied—Accessories serving as frame for the young girl and as reason for the chosen attitude.

In the Exhibition catalogue: “The Last Decade” published in 1984 by George Eastman House, this photograph is commented on: “Fondu’s woman, combination of femme fatale and omnipotent angelic female, is profiled against the sun. Like the sunflower, the sun was a popular symbol with art photography clubs. It represented photography’s necessary light as well as the inspiration, power and renewal associated with otherworldly presence.” (p. 4)

Charles Fondu: 1872-1912

The following historical chronology of the photographer appears courtesy of the Directory of Belgian Photographers hosted online by Fotomuseum Antwerp. (FOMU)

Life dates

Brussels, 1872 – ?, 1912

Activity

1898 – 1902 Vilvorde

Charles Jean Baptiste, ° 18.1.1872. Industrialist and Pictorialist. Manufacturer of accessories for rolling stock for trams and railways. He took over the family business from his father Jean Baptiste (see that name) in 1896 and expanded into automobile construction from 1906 until his death in 1912. Several of Fondu’s photographs were published in “Le sentiment d’art en photographie” and “L’art en photographie”, between 1898 and 1901 (see Liorel). Member of the “Cercle d’Art Photographique L’Effort”. Sentiment D’Art en Photographie, (The Feeling of Art in Photography) featuring the work primarily of Belgian photographers but open to all, was a folio-sized high-quality photographic plate publication under the direction of C. Smits with reproductions executed in collotype by Jules Liorel. Published by Xavier Havermans in Brussels, the award winning work of pictorialists who entered monthly contests on a given theme judged by painter (M. Titz) and amateur photographer Van Gèle were collected as individual plates suitable for framing each month. Short-lived, Sentiment debuted in October, 1898 and ran until January, 1901 when it was renamed L’Art en Photographie.

Exhibitions

Caen, 1901; Effort, 1901; Paris, 1901; Effort, 1902; Paris, 1902; Turin, 1902.

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Publication Background: Sentiment D’Art en Photographie

Before the first monthly issue of Sentiment appeared in October, 1898, editor Camille Smits sent out the following appeal and prospectus, which was published in the weekly British Journal of Photography:

We have received the prospectus, printed in amusing and nervous English, “of a publication of great riches,” Sentiment of Art in Photography. Messrs. Camille Smits & Co., of 61, Rue de Cornet, Brussels, who send us the circular, say: “ A simple examination will convince you of the interest and importance of our publication.”
We quote the following, treating of Messrs. Smits’ object :—

 “ Our object? Here it is :
“ It is to make of the photographer, not an artisan, but an artist, it is to destroy the prejudice, according to which the amateur must be content with reproducing as truly as possible the reality shown by the object-glass, without occupying himself with the impression evolved by it
“The photography of all arts is certainly the most positive, and some people value it only by as much as it reproduces exactly until the smallest details, without caring how much this kind of minute interpretation is mean and little artistic.
“ We therefore must get the better of the common opinion and vanquish equally the servility of the apparatus.
“ The sculptor is not the slave of his boasting tool, neither the painter of his brush, nor the engraver of his graving tool, but the photographer is, to a considerable extent, slave of his apparatus.
“ How to surmount such an obstacle? First by studying thoroughly the subject to be reproduced and by choosing judiciously the light—sun and shadow are they not principal agents for success ?—and then by a work in the laboratory, where the photographer, having become again artisan, will be his own master in choosing the proceedings.
“ To reach the highest possible degree of art in interpreting the nature by photography shall be our object.
“This object, shall we realise it?
“Yes.
“ What we want to do before all, is to stimulate the amateurs, and the only way to that is the competition, which we shall therefore organize every month.
” The works having received a prize shall constitute the publication, the amateurs will have thus before their eyes models which will serve them as patterns teaching. The public will be judge, and will soon be able to judge by himself the obtained result.
“ We appeal therefore to the good-will of all. This good-will, which the charm of research, inspiration and artistic work must rally naturally to our undertaking, for nothing will be more interesting than these competitions, as much for the amateur as for the public. High encouragements have already been given to us, a fact that will make our task an easy one.—We expect the support of all who are not indifferent to the questions of Art.”
Those of our readers who are interested in this form of competition should apply at the address given for the rules. The following is a glance at the programme of the competitions :—

1. Competition of THE MONTH of August.—General competition: Landscape. Special competition: Landscape in twilight. It is the exquisite hour, when the moon, like a golden galley, ascends the clear sky, where the stars are beginning to twinkle. The ploughman leaves the black furrow drown by the ploughshare. Solitude around.
2. Competition of THE MONTH of SEPTEMBER.—General competition: Interior with persons. Special competition .- Interior with persons. Room of a rich or poor person—The wife left by her young husband waits in the corner of the hearth. Study of a light effect, which, making the face conspicuous, shows its sorrowful expression.
3. Competition of THE MONTH of OCTOBER. — General competition: Summer landscape. Special competition .- Summer landscape. Allegory. Flowers everywhere and over the roads young girls carrying arms full of corollas of many colours.
4. Competition of THE MONTH of NOVEMBER. —General competition: Study of nudity. Special competition . — Study of nudity. Personification of the youth.—Slender and graceful forms, whose outlines especially must be studied—Accessories serving as frame for the young girl and as reason for the chosen attitude.
5. Competition of THE MONTH of DECEMBER.—General competition: Portrait of a woman. Special competition : Portrait of a woman. Standing or sitting, full-length portrait. Study of the outlines and the
light. (1.)

1. “Sentiment of Art in Photography.”: in: The British Journal of Photography: July 1, 1898: p. 426