Blue Nude with Hair in the Wind

Blue Nude with Hair in the Wind appeared in 1952 at a time when Henri Matisse was still working prolifically, even though he was bed-ridden for much of the day. His cut-out technique helped to reinvent his career and provide an extra avenue of interest, just when many artists would have accepted defeat to their ageing bodies.

The pose in this artwork is a little unlike most of Matisse's other blue nude cut-outs, with a much more expressive placement of limbs. The idea of wind is created by how everything points in the same direction, backwards. One can imagine wind passing through the scene and pushing the figures hair to the right. This abstract style of capturing figures will remind many of the work of Pablo Picasso, who met Matisse on a number of occasions as a young man. Acrobat is one such example.

Whilst we focus specifically on the uplifting artwork that is Blue Nude with Hair in the Wind from Matisse in this section, the complete Blue Nude series is covered in greater detail on that separate page. The entire cut-out series has received considerable exposure of late, having initially been dismissed by art academics and critics at around the time of the artist's life. Modern-thinking often takes time to receive acceptance, not just in the art world but also elsewhere in other creative industries.