Jan Sluijters - Seated Nude (1919)
- Title: Seated Nude (Zittend naaktfiguur)
- Artist: Jan Sluijters (1881–1957)
- Date: 1919
- Made in: Netherlands
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 108 × 95 cm
- Location: Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands
- Photo credit: Kröller-Müller Museum
- Copyright: Please note copyright has not lapsed. The picture is presented for educational purposes to include an important figure of Dutch art and ensure the collection is representative.
Jan Sluijters is a leading Dutch modernist artist known for his expressive use of color and dynamic brushwork. He painted a number of seated nudes in the early 20th century, between 1910 and 1930. He trained at the Amsterdam Rijksacademie and later moved to Paris, where he was influenced by Fauvism, Cubism, and the works of Van Gogh, Cézanne, and Gauguin. Sluijters' style evolved into a colorful Expressionism marked by his use of bold colors and dynamic compositions.
"Seated Nude" reflects Sluijters' Post-Impressionist and Expressionist influences, capturing a seated female nude with a focus on emotional intensity and bold, non-realistic colors.
In "Seated Nude", Sluijters presents a solitary figure in a composed, contemplative pose. The work reflects his command of color and his interest in the expressive potential of the human body, capturing both the solidity of form and the subtle rhythms of light and shadow.
The veil worn by the woman is a striking and deliberately ambiguous element, especially in the context of an otherwise frank nude. By partially concealing the woman’s hair, the veil introduces a tension between revelation and withdrawal, inviting the viewer to recognize the subject’s interiority rather than viewing her as a purely physical form.
Historically, veils have been associated with ritual, intimacy, modesty, and transition—weddings, mourning, or sacred contexts. Sluijters may be drawing on these associations to elevate the nude beyond erotic display, lending her a quiet dignity or introspective gravity. This dignity cannot also be found in how straight she is sitting in the couch, her proud demeanor and her looking in the distance. The veil and her general pose suggest that even in nudity, something remains inaccessible: a private self that cannot be possessed by the gaze.
- at Kröller-Müller Museum: Jan Sluijters - Seated Nude