The beauty of the human body has always been a gift to photography, from shirtless boxers showing off their guns in the 1850s to the trickery of Man Ray and the salaciousness of Robert Mapplethorpe. Here's a complete timeline of nudity, from a new book, The Nude in Photography
Thu 26 Jun 2014 08.46 EDT Last modified on Wed 19 Oct 2022 10.32 EDT
Félix-Jacques Antoine Moulin's Female Nude, 1856. Photograph: Félix-Jacques Antoine Moulin/Los Angeles, J Paul Getty Museum Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Jeremiah Gurney's Portrait of an American Youth, 1852-56. Hand-coloured daguerreotype. Photograph: Jeremiah Gurney/Los Angeles, J Paul Getty Museum Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Thomas Eakins's Untitled (Male Figures at the Site of Swimming), 1884. Photograph: Thomas Eakins/Los Angeles, J Paul Getty Museum Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Man Ray's Le Violon d'Ingres (Ingres's Violin), 1924. Photograph: Man Ray Trust/ARS-ADAGP/Los Angeles, J Paul Getty Museum Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Edmund Teske's Nude, Davenport, Iowa, Composite with Leaves, 1941. Photograph: Edmund Teske Archives/Laurence Bump and Nils Vidstrand, 2001 Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Wynn Bullock's Navigation without Numbers, 1957. Photograph: Bullock Family Photography/Los Angeles, J Paul Getty Museum Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Robert Mapplethorpe's Thomas, 1987. Photograph: courtesy Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation/Los Angeles, J Paul Getty Museum Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
