From 1916 to 1922 Seyffert produced a number of major canvases devoted to the nude, and these were so well received when they were exhibited throughout the country that they were usually immediately acquired for major museums. The most modernist works Seyffert was ever to produce, these canvases were no doubt influenced by the nude studies painted by his friend Arthur B. Caries. Both men used the same model, beautiful red-haired Grace Vernon, better known as "Bobby," who would later become Seyffert’s second wife. In several paintings Seyffert placed Bobby in highly decorative interiors with an ornate oriental screen, panel, or drape as a backdrop. Her body was treated as a single form and her extremities generalized or attenuated. In The Lacquer Screen, 1918 (Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia), the curves of the nude echo the calligraphic lines in the Chinese coromandel screen behind her, but in Nude with Chinese Background the figure is more abstracted, her linear body contrasting with the curving lines depicting the lohans (enlightened disciples of the Buddha) on the background panel. By stylizing the figure and using a creamy ivory, Seyffert accentuated the woman’s sensuous flesh. She appears almost luminous, the shadows on her skin colored by softer tints of the deep burgundy and green in the drapery and the earth-colored panel that surround her. The painting was altered by the artist after it was first exhibited. When shown at the Pennsylvania Academy annual in 1919, it was entitled Silver Screen, after the burnished silver screen behind the figure. Seyffert decided to repaint the background in about 1920, incorporating a much more elaborate panel, somewhat like the one in The Lacquer Screen. He painted the background in large, sweeping strokes, and the lohans seem to take on a life of their own. William Preston Harrison, who bought the painting from the artist, had seen the work in both its original and altered states.

The late nineteenth century witnessed a growing cosmopolitanism and sophistication in American culture. Great riches were amassed by railroad tycoons and land barons, and along with this came the desire for a luxurious standard of living. Collectors filled their homes with European as well as American works of art. American artists, generally trained abroad, often painted in styles that were indistinguishable from their European counterparts.
Most Americans who studied abroad did so in the European academies, which promoted uplifting subject matter and a representational style that emphasized well-modeled, clearly defined forms and realistic color. Academic painting served American artists well, for their clients demanded elaborate large-scale paintings to demonstrate their wealth and social positions. With an emphasis on material objects and textures, academic artists immortalized their patrons’ importance in full-length portraits.
Academic painting dominated taste in Europe throughout the century. But in the 1860s impressionism emerged in France as a reaction to this hegemony. By the 1880s this “new painting” was still considered progressive. Mary Cassatt was the only American invited to participate in the revolutionary Paris impressionist exhibitions. Despite her participation and the early interest of several other American painters, few Americans explored impressionism until the 1890s. Impressionist painters no longer had to choose subject matter of an elevated character but instead could depict everyday scenes and incidents. Nor did impressionists have to record the physical world with the objective detail of a photograph. Artists were now encouraged to leave their studios and paint outside under different weather conditions. American impressionists used the new aesthetic to capture the charm and beauty of the countryside and the city as well as the quiet delicacy of domestic interiors.