Paul-Jacques-Aimé Baudry’s nude, The Pearl and the Wave is painted delicately with the realism of flesh colors and lines. The model looks back over her shoulder as if disturbed by the viewer.
The 1862 painting, titled La Perle et la vague in the artist’s native French, was described by Kenyon Cox as the most perfect 19th-century nude.
Paul-Jacques-Aimé Baudry’s The Pearl and the Wave is in the Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain.