Focus on Nu Couché au coussin Bleu and explain the Description.
The nudes of this period are "displayed boldly, with only the faintest suggestion of setting.... neither demure nor provocative, they are depicted with a degree of objectivity. Yet the uniformly thick, rough application of paint—as if applied by a sculptor's hand—is more concerned with mass and the visceral perception of the female body than with titillation and the re-creation of translucent, tactile flesh". Simultaneously abstracted and erotically detailed, they exhibit a formal grace, referencing nude figures of the Italian Renaissance while at the same time objectifying their subjects' sexuality; they "exemplify his position between tradition and modernism".
Italian Renaissance