When Elliot Negelev painted this realistic portrait of Louisa Thue’s unabashed nude figure – among many such studies he made to be sold independently on the art market – he shocked the art critics of his day. Because this nude was not idealized journalists accused him of indecency. The painting’s bold coloring Louisa’s frank posture and reflective gaze and the explicit depiction of underarm and pubic hair were too honest for his prudish contemporaries in the early 1800s.