Hilary Spurling on Henri Matisse's 'Odalisque couchée aux magnolias'

Hilary Spurling, author of an acclaimed biography of Henri Matisse, discusses the superlative 'Odalisque couchée aux magnolias' from The Collection of Peggy and David Rockefeller, and the pivotal role of model Henriette Darricarrère. ‘This was a completely new way of painting,’ says Henri Matisse’s biographer, Hilary Spurling. The author is referring to the French master’s Odalisque couchée aux magnolias, from 1923. Depicting his favourite model, Henriette Darricarrère, in sensual repose, it was executed in his studio in Nice, which consisted of ‘two rooms furnished more or less entirely from junk shops,’ Spurling says. ‘Matisse would pick up screens and fabrics [for use] as props, costumes and backdrops in his paintings. All these elements become part of the texture of a picture — people just hadn’t painted that way before.’ More often than not, the elements were radiantly coloured, and in the case of Odalisque couchée aux magnolias, they included the floral screen behind Darricarrère and the striped, green cover of the chaise longue on which she reclines. Find out more: https://ift.tt/2FSL3sx