Standing Nude
- Artist: Henri Matisse
- Date: 1907
- Medium: Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions: support: 921 x 648 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
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About this artwork
This is the “Standing Nude” by Henri Matisse, painted in 1907. The figure is cut into sharp, angular planes that echo the stylised form of carved African masks—a hint that Matisse had just begun to explore African art. Rather than a live model, he worked from a magazine photograph, a choice that broke with the academic studio tradition and exposed the artificiality of the pose.
Notice the austere palette—subdued reds, greens and blues—an intentional step away from the bright Fauvist colors that had defined his earlier work. The strong black outlines give the body a sculptural quality, a technique that would influence contemporaries such as Vanessa Bell. The simplification of volume and the emphasis on line echo Matisse’s own interest in sculpture at the time, a period when he was experimenting with shape and form in three dimensions.
The painting, oil on canvas, sits on a support of just over 90 cm by 65 cm, and it entered the collection in 1960. Though modest in size, the work challenges viewers to reconsider the conventions of the nude, blending modernist abstraction with a quiet, almost sculptural presence.
See it in person
Standing Nude is in the collection of Tate Britain on Millbank, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
