In the second half of the 19th century the various Parisian Académies des Arts, both public and private, engaged their students in the modelling of sculptures after live models, a procedure which was continued by artists in their own studios after graduating from these Académies. A 1903 photograph of the renowned Académie Julian in Paris shows the proprietor Raoul Verlet in the midst of his students and of several large-scale plaster sculptures, similar to our highly impressive Male Nude. The sculpture is superbly modeled in the round in plaster over an iron armature. The surface has been finely smoothened, and feels almost as hard as porcelain. Its style suggests that it was produced between 1870 and 1890. The masculine facial features and the musculous, athletic body of the naked figure indeed make it a masterwork by a yet unidentified artist.