The artwork is in generally good condition, though it does have a small stain along the left edge, a crease in the upper left corner, and a subtle handling mark located in the lower left corner.

Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989) was fascinated with athletic and muscular bodies of both men and women, regularly capturing the statuesque forms of bodybuilders. Lydia Cheng was captured multiple times by Mapplethorpe’s lens. Cheng was a leading female bodybuilder in the 1980s. Mapplethorpe’s portraits of Cheng’s body often emphasized its graceful line rather than the physical strength contained within. This sensual photograph references classical sculptures of reclining nudes, Cheng’s skin made to appear marble-like in Mapplethorpe’s high-contrast lighting. Many of Mapplethorpe’s photographs of Cheng exclude the head. This enhances the voyeurism of looking onto Cheng’s body, heightening an objectification of the form. This elegant photograph of Cheng encapsulates Mapplethorpe’s skill as a photographer and expresses Mapplethorpe’s thematic interest in refined, almost unobtainable, sexualized beauty. This work is a valuable piece gifted by Mapplethorpe to Cheng, with a dedication 'For Lydia' inscribed on the verso.

“Robert Mapplethorpe: Ten by Ten”, Schirmer/Mosel, 1988, p. 54
“Robert Mapplethorpe: Some Women”, Bulfinch Press, 1989, title page, ill
“Mapplethorpe”, Random House, 1992, p. 265