Woman drying herself

In its intimacy, the woman drying herself is reminiscent of some of Toulouse−Lautrec’s other lithographs; the woman’s expression, bordering on ugliness, reflects the now expressive perception of reality. The same applies to paintings and female nude sculptures produced by Henri Matisse around 1906–1907, a period when – apart from Paul Gauguin – Negro sculpture was a true discovery for the then young generation of artists. Matisse returned to graphic art in 1913–1914 and later again in the 1920s, when he produced a lithograph of a female figure rendered in Classicist full−bodied form and relaxed harmony.