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Nude in a Wood (Nu dans la forêt; Nu assis dans le bois)

Henri Matisse

European Art

In this painting, made near the town of Collioure in the French Mediterranean, Henri Matisse uses broad patches of vivid pigment to integrate the figure of his wife in a lush landscape. Although his techniques were new, his subject matter—the female nude in, and equated with, nature—refers directly to the pastoral landscape tradition and its imagined worlds of timeless pleasure and harmony.

This painting was included in the 1913 Armory Show, a groundbreaking exhibition that introduced U.S. audiences to European modernism.
MEDIUM Oil on board mounted on panel
  • Place Made: France
  • DATES 1906
    DIMENSIONS 16 x 12 3/4 in. (40.6 x 32.4 cm) Frame: 24 13/16 x 21 9/16 x 1 7/8 in. (63 x 54.8 x 4.8 cm)  (show scale)
    SIGNATURE Signed lower right: "Henri Matisse"
    COLLECTIONS European Art
    ACCESSION NUMBER 52.150
    CREDIT LINE Gift of George F. Of
    MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
    CAPTION Henri Matisse (Le Cateau-Cambrésis, France, 1869 – 1954, Nice, France). Nude in a Wood (Nu dans la forêt; Nu assis dans le bois), 1906. Oil on board mounted on panel, 16 x 12 3/4 in. (40.6 x 32.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of George F. Of, 52.150. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 52.150_PS11.jpg)
    IMAGE overall, 52.150_PS11.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2022
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