Detail of Reclining Nude by Matisse in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, June 2010

Reclining Nude
1923-1925
Henri Matisse, French, 1869–1954
France

Dimensions: Overall: 34.9 x 59.7 cm (13 3/4 x 23 1/2 in.)

Medium or Technique: Oil on canvas

Classification: Paintings
Type: Figure - Female; Nude

Accession Number: 2004.444

In the 1920s Matisse lived in Nice, on the French Riviera, in an apartment filled with color and pattern-on wallpapers, rugs, and textiles. These rich backgrounds appear over and over again in his paintings of this period. But Matisse cautioned the viewer not to be confused by "the array of hangings and rugs … the sensuality of heavy, drowsy bodies … this splendid display of a siesta elevated to the maximum intensity of arabesque and color" for there is "a great tension brewing" in works such as this, a tension found in the interplay of line, color, and volume.

Text from: www.mfa.org/collections/object/reclining-nude-433129