The poem begins with the speaker stating that she is working in one of the only ways she can, as a model. She is in the middle of a long session, of posing for an artist that the world thinks is a genius. She considers the future when her painting is going to be hanging in a gallery or museum. The speaker knows that then, those who normally shun her, the social elite, are going to “coo” over her image.” She feels disdainful towards them and the higher principles they claim to appreciate. Anne Carnegie Edgerton. "Picasso's 'Nude Woman' of 1910." Burlington Magazine 122 (July 1980), pp. 498–502, fig. 52. Anne Baldassari in Picasso and Portraiture: Representation and Transformation. Ed. William Rubin. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art, New York. New York, 1996, pp. 183, 210–11, ill.

Pepe Karmel et al. Picasso: Dessins et papiers collés, Céret, 1911–1913. Exh. cat., Musée d'art moderne de Céret. Céret, 1997, ill. She does not see him as better than she is. In fact, her position is better than his. She has other things to sell, a reference to her body, and he cannot afford them. The best he’s ever getting is a long look at her while painting. In a moment of reconciliation, she recognizes that they are “both poor” and making money the only way they can. New York. Armory of the Sixty-ninth Regiment. "1913 Armory Show, 50th Anniversary Exhibition," April 6–28, 1963, no. 351. Lisa M. Messinger in Picasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Gary Tinterow and Susan Alyson Stein. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2010, pp. 148–51, no. 52, ill. (color).

Object details

New York. Whitney Museum of American Art. "Picasso and American Art," September 28, 2006–February 4, 2007, unnumbered cat. (pl.5). Standing Female Nude” is a monologue “spoken” by an artist’s model in a Paris studio. Her concern is to “make a few francs” while his is to create a work of art and a reputation for himself as a great artist. She admits to being “a river whore” who sells her body in more ways than one, but the two are using each other to an equivalent extent. First stanza Franco Russoli and Fiorella Minervino. L'opera completa di Picasso cubista. Milan, 1972, pp. 103–4, no. 331, ill. The speaker realizes that he is right about her body. She speaks of her breasts as hanging “slightly low” and as the studio as a cold place. The only source of warmth, or previous source of warmth, is the tea in a cup. Within the cup, she can see “the tea-leaves” that appear in the image,

Rotterdam. Museum Boymans. "Van Clouet tot Matisse, Tentoonstelling van franse tekeningen uit amerikaanse collecties," July 31–September 28, 1958, no. 216. Marius de Zayas. How, When, and Why Modern Art Came to New York. Ed. Francis M. Naumann. Cambridge, Mass., 1996, pp. 24, 26, fig. 28. J. Nilson Laurvik. "The Coming Cubists Explain Their Picture Puzzles." Boston Evening Transcript (April 12, 1913), part 3, p. 2, ill. The structure and form of Carol Ann Duffy’s poem “Standing Female Nude” play a crucial role in conveying the themes of beauty and vulnerability. The poem is written in free verse, with no set rhyme scheme or meter. This allows for a sense of fluidity and movement, mirroring the movements of the model as she poses for the artist.

New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism," September 24, 1989–January 16, 1990, unnumbered cat. (p. 172; as "Standing Nude," [Paris, autumn 1910]). Taking a roughly chronological approach, Daniel defines the 60-odd photos on view into five “motivations” for their nakedness. We begin in the prim times of the mid-19th century, when photographs used as figure studies for painting and drawing provided an imprimatur of practicality for nudity. Despite their utilitarian nature (Nothing to see here! Just a model for art students!), a feeling of humanity and eroticism still manages to find its way into these photos, as in Frank-François-Genès Chauvassaignes’s “Female Nude in Studio,” an uncharacteristically direct portrait for the time that feels much more contemporary as a result. New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Fifty Centuries," November 14, 1970–June 1, 1971, no. 399 (as "Nude Woman"; removed on November 24,1970 for Exh. Los Angeles and tour 1970–71). The poem comprises four stanzas, each of seven unrhymed lines. Duffy uses a technique that involves regularly running clauses and sentences between lines and even across stanzas, which creates a form of poetic prose that is relaxed and non-formal, thus allowing the reader to concentrate on the words and phrases themselves. She only uses words that are likely to be familiar to her audience, and on occasion these are slang or with sexual overtones. She has a directness of style that readers of poems by Philip Larkin would recognise. All these elements are present in the poem under review.

Mulready's enthusiasm for life drawing continued unabated until his death in 1864. An entry in Richard Redgrave's diary records: ' I believe Mulready is seventy-three, and yet there he is, hard at work at the 'Life', like any young student. He is not only attending as Visitor, and drawing at the Royal Academy, but he is one of a party who meet three times a week at Ansdell's for studying from the life'. This group includes studies made both at the RA and at Ansdell's (also known as the 'Kensington Life Academy'). These people, in real life, have no regard for her or the role she plays in society, but as soon as she is elevated through a male artist’s brush to the walls of a gallery she is the subject of admiration. The relevance of Carol Ann Duffy’s poem “Standing Female Nude” is still prevalent in today’s society. The poem explores the objectification of women and the power dynamics between the artist and the model. These themes are still relevant today as women continue to fight for equal representation and respect in the art world and beyond. The poem also highlights the vulnerability of the model, who is often reduced to a mere object for the artist’s gaze. This speaks to the larger issue of the objectification and exploitation of women in various industries. Overall, “Standing Female Nude” serves as a reminder of the ongoing struggle for gender equality and the importance of recognizing and respecting the agency and humanity of all individuals. The Poem’s Critical Reception Standing Female Nude’ by Carol Ann Duffy is a three- stanza poem that is separated into uneven sets of lines. The first two stanzas contain seven lines each and the final stanza stretches out to double the length, at fourteen lines. Duffy did not choose to give this piece a structured pattern of rhyme, the lines are in free verse.

Popular Questions

Second Williams College Alumni Loan Exhibition: In Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Williams College Museum of Art and Professor S. Lane Faison, Jr. Exh. cat., Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York. Williamstown, Mass., 1976, p. 23, no. 66, ill. p. 64.

The poem is divided into six stanzas, each with varying lengths. This creates a sense of fragmentation and disconnection, reflecting the disjointed nature of the model’s experience as she is objectified and scrutinized by the artist. In the poem “Standing Female Nude”, Carol Ann Duffy gives a new perspective on society through the eyes of this female prostitute. The poem challenges the concept of contemporary art by presenting it through the voice of a lower class woman. Duffy uses the speaker to demonstrate the class injustices inherent in the society as well as the issues raised in the objectification of women. From the beginning of the poem the reader is informed that the woman is of the lower class. Jill Kyle in Sarah Greenough. Modern Art and America: Alfred Stieglitz and His New York Galleries. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, D. C., 2000, p. 116. The language is colloquial, representing the speech of a working-class girl who is also a sex worker. The voice is that of the speaker, an artist’s model, using the first personal singular ‘I’. The tone is wry, cynical with frequent use of double entendre.Paris. Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou. "Paris–New York," June 1–September 19, 1977, unnumbered cat. (p. 257). New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Picasso: Forty Years of His Art," November 15, 1939–January 7, 1940, no. 92. She is on display for everyone; from the artist who is as poor as she is and the patrons of the art world to the Queen of England. The Queen, within the speaker’s mind, “murmurs” terms of endearment at the speaker’s shape. She sees this as ridiculous, the fact that her position within an artist’s studio can re-value her to such a degree.