Two Odalisques, One Being Nude, Ornamental Ground and Checkerboard
Henri Matisse, 1928
Image not available: work still under copyright
Two Odalisques, One Being Nude, Ornamental Ground and Checkerboard is an oil on canvas painted by Henri Matisse in 1928, during the stretch of his career usually called the Nice period. In those years the artist was drawn to Islamic art and to the journeys he had made to North Africa. This fascination with the Orient led to a large group of paintings of odalisques, more or less nude women placed in oriental-style settings that Matisse arranged in his studio in Nice.
The picture shows two reclining models in a room whose walls and floor are covered with brightly coloured decoration. Between the two figures sits a checkerboard, a geometric element that adds an almost playful grid to a space crowded with patterns. Matisse works here with the flat surface: the decorative motifs do not create illusionistic depth but are organised like a tapestry, so that bodies, furniture and background share a single visual rhythm.
The painting is signed by Matisse and dated 1928, and it has belonged to the collection of the Moderna Museet in Stockholm since 1929. Its interest lies in the way the artist pairs a sensual subject with a deliberately ordered composition, where colour and pattern carry as much weight as the figures. It can be compared with other works from the same years showing models at rest, which helps trace how Matisse explored this repertoire during that period.
- Painter
- Henri Matisse
- Date
- 1928
- Medium
- oil paint, canvas
- Dimensions
- 54 × 65 cm
- Museum
- Moderna Museet, Stockholm Municipality