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Oil on canvas. Signed lower right: “J. Dědina/ 1897”. A beautiful nude by Czech painter and illustrator Jan Dědina is dated before 1900. Dědina studied at the School of Applied Arts in Prague, where he was a student of Professor Ženíšek, and he studied sculpture under Professor Myslbek. He then moved on to the studios of Professors Pirner and Sequens. For several years he lived and worked in Paris, where he regularly took part in exhibitions at the Salon, illustrated magazines, and later assisted Albert Besnard in executing paintings at the Comédie-Française and the Petit Palais. His works were purchased for French state collections. After returning to his homeland in 1908, he settled in Prague. Dědina's style was close to that of Luděk Marold. His works built on that of his contemporaries, leading exponents of academic and revivalist European painting, and on the legacy of the Old Masters. The worldly efficacy and coquettishness of his Paris works was substituted with compositions of academic discipline, inspired by Renaissance and Baroque painting.