Standing Nude near Window

Discussion

FROM THE BARNES FOUNDATION’S CATALOG

This intimate scene portrays the model Antoinette Arnoud or her sister. The subject stands just to the left of the curtained window and covers her legs with a white towel or cloth. Her pose and the boudoir table with a mirror behind her suggest that she has just stepped out of the bath. She does not meet the viewer's gaze but rather looks intently out the window, conveying a psychological interiority that is echoed across many of Matisse's paintings from this period. The introspective mood of the moment is interrupted by the striking green leaves of the flowers in an otherwise, pastel-hued palette.

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