Courbet cropped a reclining woman's body to belly, thighs and genitals, painted close-up without any mythological excuse. It was made for the private erotic collection of the Ottoman diplomat Khalil Bey and stayed hidden from public view for most of its history. Letters point to the dancer Constance Quéniaux as the model, though Joanna Hiffernan has long been proposed.
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Its last private owner, the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, kept it behind a sliding panel on which André Masson painted an allusive, Surrealist version of the same image.
Looks like this
Compared by a vision model
