50 works of art that support the ideology of body positivity

It turns out that in Western art, body positivity is a very popular idea! And it doesn't just come down to "Rubens beauties." We present fifty examples of body positivity from the past. Replace the magazine posters on your walls with these pictures. These women have no idea about counting calories – and they're still timeless goddesses. Learn.

Beware, there are images of naked women!

Gustave Courbet, "The Hammock", 1844

This week, an essay by a girl named Maddie Howard was published on the xoJane platform; in it, Maddie tells how her ex-boyfriend laughed at her figure, using associations from art history. In particular, the words that she heard from him first of all on the first date:

Gustave Courbet, "The Naked Lady with the Dog", 1868

Howard's date, as if it came out of a nightmare, awakened a lot of emotions in women around the world. But, in addition, it once again drew our attention to the body-positive view of art on the female body.

Gustave Courbet, "The Girl in White Stockings", 1861

From Rubens to Courbet, from Matisse to Klimt-in the archives of great artists, we discover a huge variety of types of women. Curvy, shameless nudity, body hair… In short, we would hardly say that art, starting from the 17th century – from the Baroque period, promoted a healthy lifestyle.

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, "The Turkish Bath", 1862

Yes, most of the paintings are portraits of naked white women, painted by long-dead white men. And yet the standards of beauty that art offers are closer to life than modern fashion, because they recognize that women can exist in all their diversity.

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, "Odalisque with a Slave", 1842

Peter Paul Rubens, Adam and Eve, 1628-29

Peter Paul Rubens, "Venus at the Mirror", 1613-14

Peter Paul Rubens, "Venus and Adonis", the first half of the 17th century

Peter Paul Rubens, Venus, Mars, and Cupid, early 1630s.

Peter Paul Rubens, The Court of Paris, 1606

Raphael, sketch for The Three Graces, 1518

Raphael, "Fornarina", 1518

Titian, "Venus with the organist and Cupid", 1550

Titian, "Danae", 1545-46

Titian, Diana and Actaeon, 1556-59

Titian, "Violante", 1515

Gustave Courbet, "The Origin of the World", 1866

Paul Gauguin, The Sewing Woman, 1880

Edouard Manet, "Breakfast on the grass", 1863

Edgar Degas, "The Woman who Combs her Hair", 1885

Edgar Degas, The Kneeling Woman, 1884

Edgar Degas, After the Bath, 1884-86

Lucien Freud, "Standing against the Rags", 1988-9

Egon Schiele, "The Sitting Woman", 1917

Adolphe William Bouguereau, "The Wave", 1896

Adolphe William Bouguereau, The Birth of Venus, 1879

Adolphe William Bouguereau, "The Bather", 1864

Gustave Courbet, "Lying Naked", 1862

Gustave Courbet, "The Young Bather", 1866

Adolphe William Bouguereau, The Two Bathers, 1884

Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Venus, 1483-1485

Frederick Leighton, The Fisherman and the Siren, 1856-1858

Frederick Leighton, In the Garden of the Hesperides, 1892

Frederick Leighton, The Burning June, 1895

Frederick Leighton, "Cimon and Iphigenia", 1884

Evelyn de Morgan, Ariadne on Naxos, 1877

John Everett Millet, The Knight Errant, 1870

Artemisia Gentileschi, The Sleeping Venus, 1625-30

Artemisia Gentileschi, "Lucrezia", 1620

Artemisia Gentileschi, "Susanna and the Elders", 1610

Francois Boucher, "The Lying Girl", 1751

Francois Boucher, The Bathing of Diana, 1742

Francois Boucher, "Venus consoling Cupid", 1751

Francois Boucher, "The Toilet of Venus", 1751

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Madame Moitessier, 1856

Paul Cezanne, "The Bathers", 1898-1905

Gustav Klimt, "Beethoven Frieze", 1902

Henri Matisse, The Blue Nude, 1907

Henri Matisse, "The Dance", 1909

Gustav Klimt, "Masturbation", 1916