Unlike traditional representations of the nude rooted in direct observation, Roy Lichtenstein’s Nude with Yellow Pillow (1994) presents an imagined figure, derived from the artist’s long-standing archive of comic book clippings and cinematic stills. This late-career work belongs to the Nudes series, where Lichtenstein revisits the art historical nude through the visual vocabulary of mass media and commercial print.

The composition features a reclining female figure, rendered in the artist’s signature bold lines and flat planes. The curve of the figure’s form contrasts with the crisp geometries of the surrounding interior — a visual interplay borrowed in part from his earlier Interiors, Perfect/Imperfect, and Water Lilies series. The setting, while stylised, references a space that is both decorative and deliberately ambiguous.

Though the pose is relaxed, the composition is highly structured. Lichtenstein’s use of relief printing enhances the graphic presence of each element, while the simplified palette and negative space heighten the work’s formal balance. The result is a print that feels both iconic and introspective — a distillation of Lichtenstein’s lifelong interest in surface, illusion, and visual codes.