Seated male nude

Harold Abbott was a prominent member of the Sydney art world between the 1930s and his death in 1970, both as an artist and later teacher and Head of the National Art School.
This drawing is a fine example of an academic figure study, a fundamental part of training for artists from the 19th into the 20th century in Europe, North America and Australia. Studies of the nude were thought to instil in artists the discipline of looking at and rendering form, tapping into a long history of artmaking that had its roots in classical Greece and Rome, via the Renaissance.
This drawing was made when Abbott was a student at the Julian Ashton School, known for its strong academic training, and submitted for the 1931 Society of Artists Travelling Scholarship. As a demonstration of the artist’s talent and skill, it was a success – Abbott won the scholarship, leaving for London to study at the Royal Academy between 1931–33.