Nude Study of Man Walking

This anatomical drawing by American artist Kenyon Cox represents the academic tradition of figure study that formed the foundation of professional art training in the late nineteenth century. Cox, a painter and muralist, used such studies to master human proportions and movement. The figure, rendered in charcoal or graphite with careful attention to musculature and stance, demonstrates the classical approach to depicting the male form in motion. These studies were essential working materials for artists, circulated among studios and art schools to teach the principles of anatomy and pose that underlay all figurative composition in painting and sculpture.