Does Art Have a Problem with Pubic Hair?
*Warning: contains hairless and not-so-hairless nudity
Christopher P Jones is the author of Exploring Art History, an introduction to some of the most pivotal topics in art history and appreciation.
One of the significant things about the image shown above — Francisco de Goya’s La Maja Desnuda (“The Nude Maja”) — is that it’s often said to be the first depiction of female pubic hair in Western art.
Given that the painting was made sometime between 1797 and 1800, it seems to beg the question: why did it take so long for artists to paint realistic pubic hair?
As it happens, pubic hair had been hinted at before Goya’s reclining nude. Jan van Eyck added a gauzy shadow in his depiction of Eve (1432), as did Lucas Cranach in his painting Sleeping Nymph of the Spring (above) from the 1530s.
Yet these instances are few and almost all confined to the North European artists.
The truth is, when you begin scouring the archives for hints of intimate body hair, then you discover that pubic hair in art is an uncommon and problematic thing. But why?
