Nu Bleu IV

Nu Bleu IV is Matisse's most elaborate figure study in gouache decoupee,

with the exception of the Barnes mural studies, Precursor B, which were
not intended as independent works. Following his liturgical designs for the
Vence chapel, Matisse returned to the human figure in this traditional and
familiar pose, stressing both the decorative alignment of limbs and the
compact sculptural mass. Although he had used this pose throughout his
career in numerous paintings, and particularly in sculpture, Matisse
apparently felt compelled to renew his understanding of the nude figure
before attempting to render it in terms of cut and pasted paper. To this
end he made numerous drawings in pen, pencil, and colored pencil of the
seated nude - relating the parts of the figure to one another and to the
proportions of the sheet of paper.
Matisse kept a sketchbook of drawings which were the preliminary
sketches for the blue nude types. The drawings from this important carnet
are now dispersed, but a facsimile edition was issued by Galerie Huguette
Beres and Berggruen et Cie, Paris in 1955. The order of Matisse's drawings
in this sketch book appears to be chronological and allows one to follow
his first thoughts and elaborations of the blue nude theme. For example,
the first drawing shows a seated female nude with her right arm
extended, a pose unique in the sketch book but the very one with which
Matisse apparently began Nu bleu IV. The second sketch book drawing,
however, poses the nude with the bent right arm, which Matisse retained
not only for the rest of the blue nude drawings in the carnet but for the
four cutouts, themselves. The photograph of the early state indicates the
many changes Matisse made in this cutout, changes made with both
charcoal and cut paper which remain visible in the final work and give it a
labored appearance found only in a few other cutouts. Matisse's assistant
has recalled that Nu bleu IV demanded so many adjustments that it
occupied Matisse for some two weeks.
The same documentary photograph records that Nu Bleu IV evolved not
on the studio wall but on an easel. This suggests that Matisse worked on it
at close range, directly, adding and deleting bits of paper to refine the
curve of a contour just as he had previously modeled with clay. Having
patiently worked out the pose here, he then proceeded to the three
variants, which he completed with relative ease.
The unusual preparations for Nu bleu IV underscore its intimate relation to
Matisse's work in sculpture. Direct ties to the living model are most clear
in this cutout, particularly the articulation of weight and the prominent
biomorphic toes, a detail Matisse eliminated in the more schematic blue
nudes that followed. That Matisse retained these toes in the final state of
Nu Bleu IV suggests that the cutout was well-advanced when he
temporarily put it aside and that it was probably not extensively reworked
when he took it up again.