16th September

In September 1902 he was thinking about art and nudity. In a letter to his friend Edward Dent from Nuremberg about the art galleries of Munich, he described both the Old and New galleries. Of the moderns, he liked Arnold Bocklin. Of the classics, he gave time to Rubens 'and came away more understanding if not more appreciative’. He had a particular criticism: 'Why I cry out against Rubens is because he painted undressed people instead of naked ones. If their clothes haven’t just been torn off them, they are always wondering where they are, and expecting you to wonder. I don’t think it’s an epigram to say that he’s too prudish for me.’ (Source: Selected Letters of E.M. Forster, ed. Mary Lago and P.N. Furbank (London: Collins, 1983-1985), letter of 17 September 1902)


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