Although Fred Williams is best known as a landscape artist, his study and early work was grounded in figuration. In late 1943, at the age of sixteen Williams enrolled at the National Gallery School, Melbourne, where he studied drawing. Here he spent many hours laboriously sketching plaster casts, before advancing to life drawing. He subsequently undertook painting classes with William Dargie who advocated a subtle, tonal approach, and attended private classes held by modernist painter, George Bell.

This painting, produced while Williams was a student at that National Gallery School, indicates his capacity and respect for achieving both volume and mass in his figures. 'Standing nude' exemplifies a period of transition where Williams developed from a student to young artist.