Created in 1944, ‘Femme allongée’ is an exemplar of Matisse’s use of elegant, expressive line. In the 1930s the artist turned from detail to a formal simplicity, in which he contrasted clean concise lines with decadent subject matters: the principal being the female nude. Depictions of these models became series, grouped by their setting, pose, decoration and varying level of costume. These composition are amongst Matisse’s most poetic, with their quiet sophistication and purity formed through fluid line.

Created in the midst of the Second World War when he was living in Nice with his muse Lydia Delectorskaya, ‘Femme allongée’ reveals the influence of Matisse’s earlier travels to Algeria and Morocco in the early 1900s. Working on ‘exotic’ odalisques in the 1920s, Matisse further modernised the subject in the late 1930s – 1940s through setting and costume. In ‘Femme allongée’ the woman languishes on soft pillows, the curves and weight of her body mimicking that of the cushions. Decorated in fine jewels, Matisse juxtaposes the hardness of the stones against that of the softness of flesh.

This period was one of immense change for Matisse, having being diagnosed with duodenal cancer the year prior. The effects of the illness and then surgery made it so that he could only really concentrate on drawing and cutting. Matisse used drawing to accomplish the first stage of the transition from direct observation to abstraction, giving way to a new artistic freedom. The lithe, expressive drawings that he made at this time reveal his exceptional creative abilities in the final years of his life.