The Back (II)
Henri Matisse
French, 1869–1954
Issy-les-Moulineaux, 1911 (?) - early March or April 1913
A bronze relief of a standing nude seen from the back in which Matisse pares the body down to monumental, carved planes to probe line, rhythm, and surface.
You first register a dark, chisel-marked silhouette pushing out of a roughly textured background—faceted, almost blocky modeling and a bowed head give the figure a compact, weighty presence that reads as both sculpture and flattened image.
By flattening and simplifying the human form into a graphic relief, Matisse challenged classical modeling and helped steer modern sculpture toward abstraction and a closer dialogue with painting.
Medium
Bronze
Dimensions
6' 2 1/4" x 47 5/8" x 6" (188.5 x 121 x 15.2 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Mrs. Simon Guggenheim Fund
Accession
240.1956
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
