Nu à la chaise longue 1923

Henri Matisse made this painting of a nude on a chaise longue with oil on canvas. Just imagine him shifting around, trying to get the right angle, stepping back and forth. Matisse is playing with how to show a body reclining, pushing the contours and edges. It's like he's asking, 'How much can I flatten this, while still suggesting volume?' The surface is so luscious, so touchable—look at how he handles the pinks and reds of the figure against the cool blues of the background. What a dance! You see this tension between flatness and depth throughout his career. In some ways, it's like he’s having a conversation with painters like Manet and Ingres, who also grappled with how to represent the figure. It's a reminder that we’re all swimming in a sea of images, bouncing ideas off each other across time.