Lyme Academy of Fine Arts: True To Form: Academic Figure Studies from the Late 19th to Early 20th Centuries

March 1-April 27, 2025

The Lyme Academy of Fine Arts is proud to present True To Form: Academic Figure Studies from the Late 19th to Early 20th Centuries, an exhibition that celebrates the significance of the human figure in academic art training. Opening Saturday, March 1st, the exhibition will be on view through Sunday, April 27th, 2025 and will feature a curated selection of 26 works.

The human body has been a central motif in art for centuries, serving a variety of symbolic, philosophical, and aesthetic roles. From the classical and Renaissance periods to the 19th century, the nude in particular became a key focus for developing technical proficiency and expressing universal human experiences. Within the academic tradition, institutions like the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris believed the ability to depict the human body was the benchmark of an accomplished artist, and that mastery of anatomy, proportion, and movement was essential to the visual language of art.