Stunning

Jean Lecomte du Nouÿ (French, born 1842 died 1923) " The White Slave " 1888 Oil on canvas 146x118 cm Musee de Beaux Arts, Nantes, France The Orientalist style is largely characterized by its content, but also by its subdued realism and precision allotted towards depicting the human form. The latter is a prominent characteristic of the 19th century methods upheld by the Academie de Beaux Arts . Du Nouÿ was a prominent figure within the sphere of academic art and thereby adhered to a rule-based artistic style of well-developed skill and formal composition. The artistic composition of his paintings was often complemented by the use of half-light, which added certain dramatic and melancholic qualities to his work. To this day some, like Alan Braddock, consider Du Nouÿ to have been decidedly modern for his time, because his work directly and indirectly broached some of the key issues of his day, albeit from a decidedly conservative perspective: colonialism, international trade, gender, religion, and history. (wikipedia)