In 1892 Paul Gauguin made this painting, Tahitian Women Bathing. It’s in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In 1930 Matisse traveled to Tahiti. In 1930-31 he made his series of four ‘Backs.’ This is Back IV, in multiple collections including MoMA and the Hirshhorn. The Gauguin nods to a classical pose, showing his model holding her hair, as if wringing it out after bathing. Matisse, who never fully shook off being a proper Artist, had riffed on the model’s hand-behind-her-head post since for almost 30 years, since at least his first great Blue Nude. He could simplify the form (as he did in Backs), but he remained truer to the classical pose.