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Henri Matisse

Two Women Reclining (Deux femmes étendues)

between January 15 and April 15, 1921
Oil on canvas
38.4 × 46.2 cm (15.1 × 18.2 in)

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● On view now — Collection Gallery, Room 10, East Wall

Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia · verified July 2026

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FROM THE BARNES FOUNDATION’S CATALOG

A departure from Matisse's single figures in interior spaces of this period, this landscape presents two women relaxing in the countryside near Nice, in the South of France. The canvas's debt to impressionism can be seen in the subject of outdoor leisure, the rapid execution, and the treatment of light and atmosphere. In 1918 and 1919, Matisse made visits to the great impressionist master Renoir at his home at Les Collettes, not far from Nice. At the time, the aging artist was working on The Bathers (1918–19; Musée d'Orsay, Paris), a large-scale painting of two nude women lying in an idyllic landscape.

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