Matisse Luxe, I 210×138 cm, 1907, Collection of the National Museum of Modern Art, Paris

Luxury-I, 210×138 cm, 1907. Henri Matisse (1869–1954) was the leading artist of French Fauvism. Throughout his life, he explored an art of balance, purity, and serenity—an art that soothes the soul or embodies hedonism. His painting style simplifies natural forms to reveal rich colors, particularly in color expression, becoming a model for later French artists.

This work, Luxury (I), draws inspiration from Puvis de Chavannes’ Three Girls on the Beach. The figure on the left, a large nude outlined in black lines, is more fully rendered; the two nudes behind and before are simplified forms, merely planes of color. Against the beach background’s rough, chaotic brushstrokes, vitality abounds. Obvious simplification, flattening, coloring, and abstraction became pathways for modernist exploration.