Nude Descending a Staircase was painted in 1912 and created a sensation when shown at the 1913 Armory Show in New York, where one critic referred to it as 'an explosion in a shingle factory.' Painted in various shades of brown, Nude Descending a Staircase portrays a nude person in a series of broken planes, capturing motion down several steps in a single image. The painting reflects a Cubist sense of division of space, and its portrait of motion echoes the work of the Futurists.