1906

Small Black Woodcut (Nude Seated in a Folding Chair)

French, 1869 - 1954

One of the greatest painters of the twentieth century, Henri Matisse was also a prolific printmaker, creating more than eight hundred prints in a variety of techniques between 1900 and his death in 1954. This is one of three woodcuts---his only attempts in the medium---of reclining or seated nudes that he produced in 1906, based on preliminary drawings made in pen and ink. The female body dominated Matisse's graphic work, providing the ideal subject through which to explore the simplification of form and the potential of pure, dynamic line to expressively define the figure in space.