Nu debout

This work is an outstanding example of Zadkine’s passion for wood carving. The standing figure was a central motif throughout the artist’s career and these works have been described as ‘true poems in wood’. As the art critic Jianou states: ‘These statues stare at us with their whole bodies. A quiver of sensuality, desire and purity animates the slightly rounded surfaces of these young tall, slim, lissom, highly polished and occasionally lacquered bodies, over which light fairly streams’.