Jean Fouquet is considered one of the most important French painters from the period between the late Gothic and early Renaissance . Fouquet’s painting “Virgin and Child surrounded by Angels” is considered a masterpiece of the 15th century. Within an abstract setting, the painter depicts Virgin Mary, in white tones, seated on a throne with baby Jesus in her lap. The Virgin’s left breast is left uncovered, while her son is completely naked. The pale tones came in contrast with the bright red and blue hues of the angels surrounding the Virgin. At that time, female nudity in art was only accepted in portrayals of Mary breastfeeding Jesus. Female Nudity In Art Over Time The Artist’s Studio; A real allegory summing up seven years of my artistic and moral life by Gustave Courbet,1854-55, via Musée d’Orsay, Paris

In this painting, Manet depicts a naked woman, accompanied by two men, wearing modern clothing. She is a modern Parisian woman and not a divine Venus born nude naturally from the sea. It was considered vulgar for an everyday woman to be seen naked, showing that she could be dressed, but she decided not to. She seems naked and not born nude, taking into consideration her discarded clothing in the foreground. She looks directly at the viewer with her hand on her chin. Her body is minimally shaded, making her appear flat on the canvas.Calogero, R. M. (2004). "A Test Of Objectification Theory: The Effect Of The Male Gaze On Appearance Concerns In College Women". Psychology of Women Quarterly. 28: 16–21. doi: 10.1111/j.1471-6402.2004.00118.x. S2CID 144979328.

Critic Lucy Lippard once wrote that Louise Bourgeois portrays bodies from within. “No matter what material she uses, her work always delivers an under-the-skin sensation,” Paton adds. “It brings home what vulnerable and fragile beings we are, while also conveying the amazing vitality and drive of the human animal.” This work in gouache and pencil on paper reduces the human body to its simplest form, with flashes of blue placing on emphasis on the reproductive organs. According to Paton, the thin, watered down appearance of the pink paint is also evocative of “the volatile fluids of life… It’s suggestive of life blood, a mother’s milk and even amniotic fluid,” he says. In Couple, it’s as if we’re looking right through the skin to the inside story about what makes the body thrive and survive – you don’t get much more nude than that. In ancient times, artists weren’t allowed to paint nudity in art, unless they were depicting mythical figures or supernatural beings. Until the 19th century, it became a rule that the female nudes in painting should have a prototype. The naked human body provided the key link between a set of ideas, beliefs, and values. The artist could, therefore, use the nude form as a pretext to aspire to feminine beauty or reinforce dominant ideologies of modern society.The French painter expresses his style and interest through his revolutionary painting, The Luncheon on the Grass. Like most Impressionist works, this artwork features an everyday scene: two female and two male subjects sharing a picnic in a forest. Throughout the times, female nudity in art was represented in the form of mythological figures or idealized beauties. Freud always insisted on having a live model in front of him, and the experience of sitting for him is clearly shown in Standing by the Rags, a terrific example of his late style. “You can get an extraordinary sense of the challenges of being one of Freud’s subject, because the model is posed in a way that suggests both a state of sleep and abandonment, but also acute physical pressure,” he explains. This is particularly evident in the oversizing of her feet and lower legs, which appear to be supporting her weight. While this work is certainly an example of the naked, it also evokes the nudes of the past. “The way her arm is out flung reminds me of some of the quite elaborate poses that nudes would occupy in the 19th Century, where they might be cast in the role of a famous hero,” says Paton. “Freud’s hero is very much of our world, but she still has echoes of these older artists.” Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres’s La Grande Odalisque, 1814 La Grande Odalisque by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, 1814, via Musée du Louvre, Paris

Kincaid, James R. (31 January 2000). "Is this child pornography?". Archived from the original on 2012-04-14 . Retrieved 2012-04-25.

Artist - Hugo Bernatzik". Michael Hoppen Gallery. Archived from the original on 2011-11-29 . Retrieved 2011-12-10. Licht, Fred (1979). Goya, the origins of the modern temper in art. New York: Universe Books. p.83. ISBN 0-87663-294-0. The Knight errant is an example of what scholars refer to as the ‘English nude’, which caused controversy in the late 19th Century because the subjects of these works were deemed too lifelike. “It betrayed its origins, where a painter had obviously stood in front of a real, live female body, and was not concealing that fact sufficiently.” Male naked bodies were not pictured as frequently at the time. An exception is the photograph of the early bodybuilder Eugen Sandow modelling the statue The Dying Gaul, illustrating the Grecian Ideal which he introduced to bodybuilding.