Two years ago I devoted a series of posts to Henri Matisse’s Blue Nude (1907, at right, collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art), a painting every bit as important to art history as Pablo Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907), but a painting substantially less known, even studied. The Picasso has been the subject of books and exhibitions. For the most part, Blue Nude has not been. After spending yesterday musing on Matisse’s 1912-14 goldfish paintings, I thought now was a good time to re-share thoughts on Blue Nude’s sources and influence:
- Is this the most overlooked painting in America?
- Matisse’s contemporaries respond to Blue Nude.
- The obvious precedents for Matisse’s painting.
- Chardin as a source for Blue Nude.
- The connection between Blue Nude and mannerism.
[...] I was sustained by the Matisses at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Headlined by Blue Nude (1907), the painting that catalyzed 20th century art, the BMA has one of the finest Matisse collections in the world. The BMA has strong holdings not [...]