Henri Matisse

Throughout his life, Matisse focused on the female nude in his paintings, drawings and sculptures.  This work, completed a few years before his death, is an interpretation of his favorite subject in a remarkably classical style.  Created at the same time that he was executing his radically abstract "cut-outs," this finely executed drawing of a standing figure is detailed and restrained in its execution.  This work is one of several simple studies of the nude that Matisse completed at the end of his life.  In all of them, he emphasizes the basic principles of draftsmanship, exalting the beauty of the curvature and strength of the body.  It is rather poignant that depictions of a healthy young woman would appeal to the artist at this point in his life, when he was confined mostly to his sick bed or his wheelchair.

We can see from this drawing that the principles Matisse championed in his early career still hold true at the end of his life.  In a lecture in 1908 to a class of young artists, he had given the following advice: "Draw your large masses first.  The lines between abdomen and thigh may have to be exaggerated to give decision to the form of an upright pose.  The openings may be serviceable as correctives.  Remember, a line cannot exist alone; it always brings a companion along.  Do remember that one line does nothing; it is only a relation to another that creates a volume" (Matisse speaks to his students, 1908: Notes by Sarah Stein, reprinted in Alfred H. Barr, Matisse, His Art and His Public, New York, 1951, p. 551).