In Tate Modern
- Artist
- Henri Matisse 1869–1954
- Original title
- Nu de dos II
- Medium
- Bronze
- Dimensions
- Object: 1892 × 1206 × 190 mm
- Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Purchased with assistance from the Matisse Appeal Fund 1956
- Reference
- T00114
Display caption
The Backs were Matisse’s largest sculptures. Over twenty years he progressively refined the original pose, based on a woman leaning on a fence, until he achieved a massive simplicity. Matisse’s decision to show the back view of a woman on such a monumental scale was unorthodox. By concealing her face, he avoided the complexities of visual engagement between artist and model. This helped him to consider the nude as an arrangement of forms that he could simplify and stylise.
In the final sculpture, the modelling of flesh has given way to the massing of androgynous bulk and the gently curved spine has been replaced by an abstracted plait. Although Back I had been exhibited in 1913, the series remained almost unknown until 1949–50 when the plaster Backs I, III and IV appeared in exhibitions in Paris and Lausanne.
Back II was only rediscovered after Matisse’s death, while an even more naturalistic first version is now only known from a photograph. All were cast in bronze after his death.
Gallery label, October 2016
Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? We would like to hear from you.
Catalogue entry
T00114 Nu de Dos II (Back II) c.1913-14
Inscribed 'Henri Matisse' b.l. and 'HM 4/10' b.r.
Bronze relief, 74 1/2 x 47 3/4 x 7 1/4 (189 x 121 x 18.5)
Purchased from the artist's family (Grant-in-Aid) with the assistance of the Matisse Appeal Fund 1956
Prov: As for 'Back I' (T00081)
Exh: Matisse 1869-1954, Hayward Gallery, London, July-September 1968 (540, repr.)
Lit: Alfred H. Barr, Jr., Matisse: his Art and his Public (New York 1951), pp.142, 218, 539, and Additions and Corrections; Albert Elsen, 'The Sculpture of Matisse, Part IV: The Backs and Monumental Decorative Sculpture' in Artforum, VII, December 1968, p.29, repr. p.28; Jack D. Flam, 'Matisse's Backs and the Development of his Painting' in Art Journal, XXX, Summer 1971, pp.354-5, 361, repr. p.354; Albert E. Elsen, The Sculpture of Henri Matisse (New York 1972), pp.182, 185, repr. pls. 248, 254
This relief was forgotten for many years, until the plaster came to light in a Nice warehouse in 1955, a few months after Matisse's death. On style it is clearly the second of the surviving works of this series, and was probably executed about 1913-14 because of its affinities with paintings such as 'Woman on a High Stool' made in the winter of 1913-14 and the portrait of Mlle Yvonne Landsberg painted early in 1914.
Published in:
Ronald Alley, Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, p.495, reproduced p.495
Explore
- people(35,020)
-
- actions: postures and motions(9,098)
-
- arm / arms raised(834)
- standing(3,134)
- adults(22,637)
-
- woman(9,055)
- body(4,877)
-
- back(243)
- nudes(2,552)
-
- female(1,664)
You might like
-
Henri Matisse Back I
c.1909–10, cast 1955–6 -
Henri Matisse Back IV
1930, cast 1955–6 -
Henri Matisse Back III
c.1916–17, cast 1955–6 -
Henri Matisse Reclining Nude II
1927 -
Henri Matisse Standing Nude
1907 -
Henri Matisse Reclining Nude
1924 -
Henri Matisse Nude Study in Blue
c.1899–1900 -
Henri Matisse Little Aurore
1923 -
Henri Matisse The Inattentive Reader
1919 -
Henri Matisse Reading Woman with Parasol
1921 -
Henri Matisse Draped Nude
1936 -
Henri Matisse Trivaux Pond
1916 or 1917 -
Henri Matisse Studio Interior
c.1903–4 -
Henri Matisse Notre-Dame
c.1900 -
Pierre Bonnard Bathing Woman, Seen from the Back
c.1919