Sketch for Le Bonheur de vivre

Discussion

FROM THE BARNES FOUNDATION’S CATALOG

This small sketch is one of numerous studies and preparatory drawings that Matisse executed while working on his seminal painting Le Bonheur de vivre , also in the Barnes's collection. It shows the artist working out the color relationships, balancing the bright oranges and yellows with cooler green-blue tones. Though the sketch is very roughly blocked out, many of the compositional elements are already in place. The two central reclining nudes, for example, are suggested by fleshy pink smears of paint, both thickly outlined in dark green, with daubs of orange and blue-black indicating the figures' hair.

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