Renowned for his intimate paintings dwelling on the corporeality of the female body, Philip Pearlstein (1924–2022) was a pioneering figure of American contemporary realism. In the 1960s, his large-scale canvases challenged the prevailing taste for abstraction, taking a fresh approach to the traditional subject of the human form. In this painting, a nude man leans against a wall, his body turned towards a naked woman on a chair. Strong, overhead lighting reveals every contour of their flesh, which is painted with exacting detail. Like many of the artist’s compositions, the figures are radically cropped by the canvas edge and each one is devoid of emotion. When this painting was made, he was working directly from live models, an approach that many critics considered anachronistic. Pearlstein initially made abstract landscapes before turning to the human figure, and though his techniques evolved over the years, he remained dedicated to unflinching realism.