1923, Henri Matisse, Nude on a Sofa -- Norton Simon Museum (Pasadena)
From the museum label: Using a dry brush charged with black paint almost as though it were a stick of charcoal, Matisse laid in the contours of this reclining nude with a brisk hand. The composition holds red (the chair, the flowers), white (the sheet, the vase) and black (the body's contours and the boldly patterned backdrop) in perfect equilibrium. By the I920s, Matisse's work had taken a classical turn, increasingly focused on the subject of the female nude and driven by the practice of drawing. "What I dream of," he would later explain, "is an art of balance, purity, tranquility ... an art which is soothing ... something similar to a good arm-chair."
1923, Henri Matisse, Nude on a Sofa -- Norton Simon Museum (Pasadena)
From the museum label: Using a dry brush charged with black paint almost as though it were a stick of charcoal, Matisse laid in the contours of this reclining nude with a brisk hand. The composition holds red (the chair, the flowers), white (the sheet, the vase) and black (the body's contours and the boldly patterned backdrop) in perfect equilibrium. By the I920s, Matisse's work had taken a classical turn, increasingly focused on the subject of the female nude and driven by the practice of drawing. "What I dream of," he would later explain, "is an art of balance, purity, tranquility ... an art which is soothing ... something similar to a good arm-chair."