Painting by Sterling Boyd Strauser: Nude

Four inches wide. She takes up all of them.

This small nude is an oil on board by Sterling Boyd Strauser (1907-1995). A painted nude of this size is an intimate thing, made for close looking in a private room rather than for a grand wall. A slender standing figure fills the tall, narrow panel, with long dark hair, a tilted head and one hand raised to her chest. Pale, thick paint builds up the body, and quick black lines draw the arms and hip over it. A broad, dark wooden frame with a thin gold liner holds it. The image is four inches wide and sixteen high, over twenty-five framed.

The frame is very large. She has not noticed.