Sidney Goodman was born in Philadelphia in 1936 and graduated from Philadelphia College of Art in 1958. Though he is best known for his paintings, Goodman also produced many drawings and prints.

Goodman, a child of immigrants to the United States, came of age in the wake of the Holocaust. The uncertain political environment produced feelings of isolation and uncertainty in many, including Goodman. These circumstances influenced his art, which often portrays figures and landscapes with overtones of angst. Goodman conveys his themes through symbolism and dramatic light and shadow, through which he claims that “the physical and spiritual realms of human experience merge.” He is often associated with the movements of new realism and American realism.

This lithograph was produced by Goodman at Rhode Island College as part of a demonstration accompanying his 1979 solo show in Bannister Gallery. Goodman began creating images of nudes such as this one in the 1960s, changing his focus from live models to photographs and memory. Though his work is mainly figural, his pieces vary in their level of representation. The figure in this piece breaks down into marks, as does the background. Without a head, the presence of the figure is almost secondary to the interactions between shapes of light and shadow.